The Dragon Boy
by MissCharlieWeasley
Summary: "I love you, Dragon Boy." She whispered in his ear, slipping up from next to him and walking away. Charlie Weasley doesn't love anyone, right? Wrong. Every time she leaves it hurts him more than words can describe but he would still do anything for her. And she almost always goes back to him. Almost.
1. Note From the Author

**Preface from the author:**

Good morning my dear readers. I realise that this fanfiction has been up for a while but I believe it need to be said. The first four or five chapters of this fic are just silly little warm up chapters written a long time ago by myself. Back when I didn't have a plot for our dear Charlie. Well now I have his story sorted out, it is sad. It is a roller coaster. And people get caught in the crossfire. But it's Charlie's story and it deserves to be told.

So if you could be so kind as to either put up with the first few chapters until I have time to re-write them - or just skip them all together - I would be most thankful. You'll know when I've re-written them because I'll take this message down.

I've changed the way I write a lot since I wrote those chapters and the story is getting better - I hope.

All of my love:

MissCharlieWeasley xx


	2. Prologue

Author note: Hey people I wanted to tell you all that this is my very first fan fiction so it might take me a while to get into the flow of things. There will be more notes from me later ... look forward to it.

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><p><strong><span>The Dragon Boy<span>**

Prologue

Charlie Weasley approached platform 93/4 for the third time in his life, only this time he would be joining his older brother Bill in going to Hogwarts. Hogwarts, he had dreamed of going to Hogwarts since the first time Bill had spoken of it; this year he was finally old enough to go! Eleven years old and starting his first year in the best wizarding school there was. He waited patiently, in front of the stretch of wall between platforms nine and ten, for his mother, father and six siblings to get there. Charlie was the second oldest of seven children in his home, he had five brothers and one sister, it would be another three years until his younger brother Percy joined Bill and himself. It would be five years until Fred and George came to Hogwarts, seven years until Ron joined and eight years until their younger sister Ginny joined them. By that time he would have left. Charlie was eight years older than Ginny and two years younger than Bill, he pitied Ginny, she had to watch all of the rest of them go to Hogwarts and wait another year before she could join them.

His family finally caught up with him. "Slow down Charlie," his mother chastised "you'll fall and hurt yourself, I don't see why we need to go so fast, we're fifteen minutes early already."

"He's just eager to get there aren't you son?" asked his dad. Mr and Mrs Weasley both had startlingly red hair and lots of freckles. Mrs Weasley was small and plump with a kind face and clear hazel coloured eyes, she had masses of curly red hair hanging loose around her pale face. Mr Weasley was tall and slim with a long face and blue eyes.

"Yes dad, I am going to be in Griffindor and be in the Quidditch team like Bill!" Charlie said excitedly, he was quite tall for his age and had the same red hair as his parents, he had blue eyes that were filled with wonder. He had some freckles but not as many as his parents or his older brother, in fact he had less freckles than anyone else in his family. Ginny, his little sister crept up to him and slipped her hand into his, tugging down on it she whispered "Charlie, you will write to me wont you? I will miss you you know, I wont get any piggy backs or any extra cookies!" Ginny was three years old and adored her older brother, he was nice to her, because she was the only girl Bill, Fred, George, Percy and Ron tended to pick on her and tease her about things. Charlie always stuck up for her. He gave her piggy back rides whenever she wanted one and got her cookies when the others hid them on top of the cabinet where she couldn't reach, even though their mum told him he shouldn't because she was too small and too young.

"Of course I'll write, just like Bill does, it wont be too long till you get to come up too, I know you'll love it!" replied Charlie happily and he swept Ginny up onto his back for one last piggy back ride until the Christmas break.

"Yay!" Ginny screamed with delight as they passed through the barrier to platform 93/4 and emerged in front of a scarlet red steam train, the Hogwarts express.

"Now Bill, you look after Charlie until he gets to know his way around and has some decent friends; do NOT let anyone bully him. Oh, Charlie your hair is a mess, what have you been doing." Mrs Weasley tried to put his hair into place but he swatted he away.

"Mum, get off, I don't need looking after!" Charlie said but permitted her to kiss him on the cheek before he set Ginny down and ran off after Bill onto the brilliant steam train to find a seat before it set off. Charlie sat down next to Bill in the compartment and stuck his head out of the window to wave goodbye to his family as the train set off, gathering speed as it rounded a corner blocking them from view. In that second he wished he was standing on the platform next them waving Bill off, for all of his talk about being excited, when the excitement wore off he was left with a gnawing fear of the place he was about to go.

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><p>AN: So what did you think of the prologue, it is just a bit of background info. There is one surefire way to tell me what you thought though ... REVIEW!


	3. we're back

A/N: Hey guys! I'm back with another chapter, chapter 1 to be exact and thanks to my awesome friend **FezzesRCool25** who reviewed and is just awesome anyway. Also to Chadders who is also awesome, you should read their stories (ten times better than mine and they have more than 2 chapters!)

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><p><strong>We're back!<strong>

Chapter one – six years later

Charlie boarded the train at platform 93/4 for the seventh and final time of his life to go to Hogwarts, at one point in his life he had been scared to get on this train and leave behind his home at the burrow, not to mention his family. Leaving his little sister Ginny had been the hardest for him, he loved her and she adored him, he was the best big brother ever, in her opinion he was a god. And he was, he had gone from being one of the scrawny Weasley boys to being in a league of his own, he had worked and worked on getting his body to the best and fittest it could be, he had broad shoulders and a well muscled chest and abdomen, he also had well muscled arms and legs, he was the perfect specimen. His red hair had been bleached slightly from working out in the sun, it was now more brown with a tinge of red in it than as bright as his brothers'. His naturally pale skin was sufficiently tanned also from training outside, his freckles on the other hand had gone from being practically invisible to standing out but oddly enough worked with his tanned skin.

He sat on his own on the train, in his own compartment, waiting for his friends, he was early for the train this year, for the first time since the others had come to Hogwarts they were on time. One by one his friends arrived and filled the compartment. His three closest friends soon brightened up his mood, just seeing them gain made him smile, there was Thorne Stone his best friend. A tall willowy boy with jet black hair that covered part of his face. For what Thorne lacked in muscle he made up for in mystery and was always in demand with the ladies. Then there was Christian Harris, the joker of the group, he was always teasing one of them about something. He was smaller than both Charlie and Throne but was also slim and fitted in well with them, he had honey blond hair that fell quite long in small tight curls at the bottom. And then there was his only female friend Alexia Davenport. Charlie had nursed a crush on Alexia since the first time they had met, when they had both been sorted into Griffindor. Alexia was also tall, around the same height as him, she had long brown curly hair that she always wore loose, she was very beautiful with creamy unblemished skin and high cheekbones. She has pale violet eyes that got darker with her mood and moved with an unchallenged grace. She was a dancer and had been since she was three years old, she studied ballet and was frequently found practising in the common room. This earned her laughs from the boys and the nickname Twirlgirl, which she hated but she put up with it because she had nicknames for the rest of them. Thorne was sugarplum because it really wound him up. Christian was goldilocks because of his hair and Charlie was dragon boy because of his obsession with dragons.

"How are my boys?" Alexia asked teasingly and then laughed,

"Lex, we aren't your boys" said Thorne shifting his hair out of his eyes ever so slightly.

"Yeah, we kind of are" replied Christian fairly "I'll be your guy any day darling" he scooched closer to her and she swatted him around her head with a copy of the Daily Prophet that had been haphazardly left on the floor of their compartment. Alexia sat down next to Charlie and he stood up to help he put her things on the luggage rack, he noticed a new addition to her bags this year. Charlie stuck his fingers through the bars in the animal carrier.

"Who's this little guy?" he asked and snatched his hand back out of the carrier abruptly, "it bit me" he added on the end.

"I am so sorry Charlie, he doesn't exactly like his new carrier." She opened the carrier and pulled out a small black cat with startlingly green eyes that took up most of his face. "This is panther, my parents got me him over the holidays, we have trained him but he just doesn't agree that carrier" she laughed and everyone else joined in. As the only girl in the group she was respected more than the others, for example half way to Hogwarts the boys engaged in a Berty Botts every flavoured beans fight and she was carefully kept out and they all made sure none of them hit her.

"Oh my god!" she squealed when they were almost there, "We are seventh years! We have power and we take our N.E.W.T's this year!"

"I know, it's brilliant isn't it?" Charlie said a huge grin lighting up his face, "Hey, you'll never guess what! I'm the -"

"Captain of the Quidditch team this year." Finished Alexia for him, "I noticed the badge as soon as I came in, you are so lucky! You get to be a Prefect and the Captain of the Quidditch team!" She was genuinely happy for him and took it well, in his opinion she should have been the captain this year, she was the best chaser the school had seen, she was fast and agile and never missed a goal.

"It should have been you" he admitted guiltily, "at least we're both prefects again this year." She just rose an eyebrow and he knew that ended the conversation. The train slowed down and pulled into Hogsmede station, they all pushed their way through the crowds that were also trying to get off of the train, all the time Alexia kept a tight grip on her things in one hand and Charlie's arm in the other. When they finally got off the train they could hardly see a thing, they could however see Hagrid's looming figure which was followed by the bellow:

"Firs' years this way, all firs' years to me now … come on all of yer, get a move on!" Hagrid always took the new first years over to the castles in the boats, no one knew exactly why. "Oi, Charlie" he shouted after spotting Charlie in the fog, Charlie jogged up to him.

"Yes"

"Did yer get them dragon books over the holidays then?"

"Yeah, and I've read them all, they were brilliant!"

"An' you been keepin' yer strength up for yer practical N.E.W.T this year?"

"Training everyday, the others think I'm weird!" Charlie laughed and waved goodbye as Alexia pulled him away.

"Alright Lex, I'm coming" he said "are you ready for our practical care of magical creatures N.E.W.T?"

"I was born ready, what do you think it will be?" she replied still pulling him in the general direction of the carriages.

"I dunno, something good though, hey have you seen some of the first years? They're tiny!" he said abruptly.

"No, no they aren't, you're just huge." She stated matter-of-factly and then they laughed. Finding the carriage where there friends waited proved to be just as difficult as they had anticipated, in the dense fog that clouded the area but they managed eventually and were happy when they got to the castle out of the fog, where they could see everything clearly.

The four friends sat down together at one end of the Griffindor table, they had grown so used to this process that it was second nature to them, all eyes looked forwards as the awestruck first years were lead, in a single file line, to the front of the hall by Professor McGonagall who was carrying an ancient three legged stool and the even older decrepit looking sorting hat. Professor McGonagall was a tall thin witch with her black hair pulled into a tight bun at the back of her head, she was the transfiguration teacher and the head of Griffindor house. As soon as the hat was set on the stool it burst into life, anticipation filled the room a smirk set itself in the tattered black material mouth in the brim of the hat and it opened wide. It sang to the room, more of a riddle than a song but it was one of things everyone was waiting for.

This year,

There is a change ahead,

Something new,

For gold and red.

Three houses of the four,

At peace

One in shreds,

The one you would expect least.

So do not join together,

And all will be strong,

But do unite,

And it could go wrong.

A fatal balance of the scales,

Cannot tip, cannot fail,

If it does good will fall,

Bad will rise and hurt us all.

A dark shadow,

On the sky,

A badly kept secret,

All leads to the lie.

The whole hall sat in a shocked silence, the sorting hat always, without a doubt told everyone to unite to stop evil among them. Not once before this had the hat told the school to divide and keep to their houses. Slowly but surely whispers spread across the tables and more and more people came out of silenced shock to talk feverishly about what the at had just proclaimed. Professor McGonagall cleared her throat and all reluctant eyes turned back towards the hat. Everyone was waiting to see what new students they got in their houses this year. One by one first years were called to the stool in alphabetical order. All they had to was put on the sorting hat and wait for it to tell them which house to go in to. For some absurd reason this was a lot more terrifying than it sounded. When the last first year had been sorted the hall erupted into excited chatter about different subjects people were taking and about friends catching up with what went over the holidays. Professor Dumbledore rose from his throne like chair in the middle of the staff table and cleared his throat. Within seconds you could have heard a pin drop, Professor Dumbledore smiled and opened his arms wide, as if to embrace the whole room.

"Ah, to the first years, welcome to Hogwarts and to old faces welcome back, now I am aware that we are all waiting to start our excellent feast and I will deny you that privilege no longer. Dig in!" He said and food appeared on the gold plates around the tables, bowls filled with vegetables, plates filled with meats, jugs of gravy and plates of bread sprung up in front of them and Charlie did not waste any time in grabbing what he wanted and piling it onto his plate, all of his friends had done the same, apart from Alexia who had accomplished this task with much more elegance and manners and before long they were all tucking into the schools amazing food. After they were all sitting sleepily, stomachs full, waiting to be dismissed Professor Dumbledore stood up again and sighed contentedly.

"Ah, well that was by far the best feast I have ever had!" He proclaimed happily " Now I have a few announcements before I can send you all to your beds, Mr Filch has asked me to remind you that there is to be no duelling or any spells cast in the corridors, also that the Forbidden Forest is out of bounds as some of our older students still seem to need reminding. And finally I would like to introduce you to our new Defense against the Dark Arts teacher Professor Davenport."

"Oh no!" Alexia breathed in Charlie's ear as a tall dark haired man stood up, inclined his head towards the audience of students and sat back down. The students clapped and waited eagerly for the word that meant they could go to bed and sleep off the fatigue that came with a filling meal.

"And I wish you all a good night's sleep, off you go now." Professor Dumbledore dismissed and sat back down to talk to Alexia's father. Charlie and Alexia herded the Griffindors (mostly the first years) up the moving staircases, the shortest way (that they would know) to the common room. On the way Charlie caught Alexia by the arm and they pulled ahead of the chattering first years,

"Was that your dad?" Charlie asked, a glint of humour in his eyes.

"Do not get me started, I didn't want him come, this is going to be the most embarrassing year of my life!" Alexia breathed angrily

"I'd be more worried about the fact that Defense against the Dark arts teachers never last more than one year." He whispered feverishly. Alexia's face fell and looked at him in horror.

"Oh my god, my dad!" She cried but Charlie immediately told her to shush and pulled her closer.

"Your dad'll be fine, Lex he'll be fine, I promise." He whispered looking sideways at the group of first years trailing behind them, he let her go and turned to look the fat lady in the face.

"Right you lot, listen up, this is the entrance to the common room, all you have to do is tell her the password and she'll let you in, this week's password is Veritaserum. Don't forget it." He turned to the fat lady once more and repeated the password an she swung in to reveal the common room, painted richly in scarlet red and decorated with gold.

As soon as Charlie and Alexia had sorted out all of the first years they sat with their friends in front of the fire, in their favourite squashy chairs. The fear for her father still at the back of her mind but dying down as she relaxed with her friends, she felt a sense of safety there sat on the arm of Charlie's chair because Thorne had taken hers. They all went to bed shortly after that and in the dark Charlie thought of Alexia and then of her dad who would be teaching them lessons, a smile stretched across his features and he fell asleep like that.

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><p>AN: SO I finished another chapter, I guess you noticed. Review now please! I mean it right now, I don't care if you're eating soup, soup can wait.


	4. You and me

A/N: Hey guys I am back again with another chapter. This one is good, I enjoyed writing this one. I do love having Lexie's dad teaching her and her miscieveous friends.

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><p><strong>You and me<strong>

Chapter 2

Thorne, Christian, Alexia and Charlie were sat at the Griffindor table the next morning waiting for Professor McGonagall to make her way through the pile of second and third years wanting their timetables and get to them. When she finally did she looked as harassed as they had ever seen her.

"Right, who is first?" she asked briskly, "Mr Stone, how about you?" Before Throne could reply she took a blank timetable and tapped it with her wand and it filled with black ink writing, she handed it over and asked if it was alright, he nodded happily. She turned to Christian next and then to Charlie before finally addressing Alexia.

"Miss Davenport, your timetable is already sorted out, it is currently with Professor Davenport, he wanted to look at it so I did it early." She said, "Your first lesson is with him anyway," she finished looking at each of them in turn.

Alexia looked at the three boys around her and put her arms around Charlie and Christian who were the nearest smiling and led them out in the direction of the Defense against the Dark arts corridor.

"Well, lets go see my daddy then, there has to be _some_ perks to having him working here." She announced grandly gliding through the swarms of first and second years who were trying to find their classes for the morning.

They approached professor Davenport's classroom and Alexia walked in without knocking, not something she did lightly, the boys followed her uneasily and Thorne actually knocked before entering. Professor Davenport came out of the back room and beamed at Alexia and then the rest of them.

"I suppose you've come for this," he smiled holding up a timetable size piece of paper. Professor Davenport was a nice man, He had black slightly greying hair and the same warm violet eyes as Alexia that filled with the emotion he felt. He didn't have her high cheekbones or creamy skin, he was slightly tanned and slightly red in the face and was tall with a bit of a stomach. "Take a seat all of you, you're a bit early but you can stay here until the lesson starts, Lexie can I have a word?"

"Of course Daddy." She said pleasantly and skipped over to his desk where he was sat. When she got there he smile warmly at her, it was easy to see where she got her honey glazed smile from.

"Lexie, I want you to know I am not here to embarrass you, I am here to teach Defense against the Dark arts. I will try not to embarrass you but there's no promises." He said winking at her and she laughed and started to turn around to the others, "and Lex, you cannot call me dad or daddy in class, it has to be professor Davenport, alright honey?"

"Yes daddy, I mean professor Davenport." She said turning away.

When the bell finally went the five of them were engaged in a conversation about the Quidditch season, even Thorne. Professor Davenport was sat on his desk and Alexia was sat at the desk closest, everyone was sat on the front row so when the other students started to come drift in they had to sit further back, even the nerds. When everyone had come in professor Davenport stood up and cleared his throat, everyone fell silent you could have heard a pin drop, everyone wanted to see what the new teacher was like.

"Good morning class, I am professor Davenport." He said with a flourish smiling, "I will teaching you for your N.E.W.T year."

The class looked impressed at the teacher, he was not what they ad been expecting, of course Alexia had known how good he would be but for the first hour of the double lesson he showed them new defense spells and learnt their names.

"Unfortunately we cannot just look a defensive magic all day, I am afraid we have to do some writing up this lesson." Professor Davenport sighed, he seemed to enjoy casting the spells as the students had watching them. He set them off on some written work and told them they were allowed to talk. Charlie, Christian and Thorne smiled at each other secretly and when Alexia shot them confused looks the just shrugged their shoulders. She balled up a piece of paper with her elegant script on it.

Charlie,

What are you planning?

She enchanted it with a wordless spell and it flew like a curve ball and hit Charlie on the shoulder repeatedly until he picked it up and read it. She saw a smile pick up at the corners of his mouth. He scribbled a reply and was just about to enchant it to fly back to Alexia when Professor Davenport turned around an saw it on the desk.

"What have you go there Charlie?" He asked picking it up and reading it. His face stiffened and the whole class turned to look at what was going on.

"Miss Davenport, I believe this is your handwriting, you should not be passing notes in class. Especially ones with this type of content." Her father said very stiffly, immediately dropping the cool teacher thing and replacing it with the disapproving father thing.

"I don't know what you're talking about Professor" she ventured bravely, swallowing,

"I am speaking of the note that Mr Weasley has in front of him that is written originally in your handwriting and answered in his, Miss Davenport, the one containing private information about him and yourself, Miss Davenport." His voice rose above it's normal level and filled with menace, it brought tears to Alexia's eyes.

"I only wanted to know what Thorne Christian and Charlie were whispering about." Her voice quivered as she stumbled over the words. Her father's face softened, he never could stand to see his little girl crying he looked as if he was about to reply but she carried on.

"I haven't even got the reply, I don't know what it says" she whispered, hiccuping.

Professor Davenport looked torn over having to watch his baby cry and having to be the teacher and sort out the situation. He seemed to find a compromise.

"Fine, Miss Davenport just remember not to pass notes in my class." He finished sternly and she nodded. For the rest of the lesson she kept her head down and wrote without stopping and when the bell went she packed up slowly trying to make the red rings around her eyes calm down.

"Alexia, could you stay behind for a moment please?" Professor Davenport said quietly from his desk, she nodded miserably.

The last students out closed the door behind them and Alexia remained at her desk on the front row. She was looking at her hands.

"Alexia" he said softly, "Lexie, listen to me, I didn't mean to upset you sweetheart or embarrass you. I just reacted badly to the note that's all, it's hard you know, teaching you and trying to act as your teacher rather than your father."

"I know daddy, can I read the reply?" She asked shyly, he nodded and handed her the screwed up piece of paper. It read:

Charlie,

What are you planning?

Lexie,

My plan has two stages two stages, unfortunately you can't know the first stage but ends in the same way as all of my plans. Stage two: Me and you ;) together forever xxx

He had draw a cartoon of them kissing and enchanted it to move, she was going to kill him.

"Thanks daddy" she said and she kissed him on the cheek before leaving, the note still in her hands, the others were waiting for her on the staircase that led the way up to Griffindor common room, she kept walking and they got up to follow her, Professor Davenport hadn't given them any homework so the free period they had next could be used for leisure. When they got to the common room Thorne scared a third year out of his chair and both Chris and Charlie followed suit. As soon as Charlie turned his back Alexia jinxed him, before he knew what had happened he was hanging upside down by his ankle.

"Lexie, what the hell?" He shouted waving his arms around like a mad man. She just turned her back him and walked up to the girls dormitory and flopped down on her bed and regretted what she had just done. She must have fallen asleep then because she didn't remember anything up until there was a loud thud from the stairs that led back into the common room and a lot of giggling from some second years that had been about to go down them.

"What are you laughing at?" she said irritably and slightly groggily to one of them.

"That boy tried to get up here!" They laughed and pointed at a pile of clothes at the bottom of the stairs. The pile of clothes got up and shook itself off cursing under it's breath and stood up facing the stairs.

"Lexie!" The figure shouted "please come down."

"Why don't you come up here?" she asked laughing a little and coming to sit at the top of the ramp. Inconveniently blocking the way for anyone else who wanted to get up or down to the dormitory.

"Uh, I tried to and ended up looking like a laundry pile at the bottom of your stairs" he said, "I don't blame you for hexing me."

Lexie's red-ringed eyes focussed on Charlie who was still stood at the bottom of the ramp, he sighed and judged the size of the ramp. Charlie muttered something inaudible and ran UP the ramp to sit next to Lexie, she just raised her eyebrows and shook her head.

"This is much more private you know those first years are tiny and they didn't half get a shock when I nearly landed on them but seriously I was just joking around, I didn't mean for your father to read the note."

"I don't think it was the note that bothered him, I think it was the heavenly image of his daughter snogging the face off the boy he thought he could trust." Lexie finished with a slightly harassed look directed towards Charlie.

"I'm sorry Lex" he said again.

"And I'm sorry for hexing you, I sorted it out with my dad anyway and he's not angry anymore, he realised we were just joking around about going out."

Charlie agreed with her but there was an uncharacteristic look of pain in his eyes, Lexie noticed it too but didn't comment.

"We good?" Charlie asked cautiously

"Yeah, we're good" she replied, and added with a sideways look at Charlie "darling" and laughed sliding down the ramp and coming to a halt at the entrance to Gryffindor common room. She turned to look back up and saw Charlie sliding towards her and didn't quite manage to move out of the way quick enough to avoid being squashed by him. He pushed her out of the way as he got to the bottom but it didn't work very well either and they ended up being a bigger laundry pile than Charlie had been before. Thorne and Chris noticed them and laughed.

"This is cosy isn't it?" Came the sly voice of Andrew Carson, the only Gryffindor Charlie, Lexie, Christian and Thorne hated. They hated him with nearly as much passion as they hated the Slytherins. He looked very satisfied with himself which could not be good for any of them, Christian – completely ignoring him – looked at the human laundry pile and smiled.

"It's about to get a whole lot cosier, make room!" He demanded and he grabbed Throne by the wrist and dragged him over to where they both jumped on top of Charlie and Lexie.

"Where'd Lex go?" Thorne asked because she had disappeared from view.

"Get off of me!" Came a shout from underneath them, with all of the chaos that Christian and Throne joining their laundry pile had caused they had piled on top of Alexia without even noticing. They scrambled off of her and took their usual seats in front of the large fire that dominated one wall of the room, laughing off the earlier argument.

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><p>AN: He-ey look at the amazing chapter! LOOK AT IT! now if you would find it in your heart to review I say do it! You kind persons I love ya. (wow bet I just put you off reviewing)


	5. To our dear mate Andy!

A/N: Hey people of fanfiction. I have managed to scrape up another chapter for you so I want yout o enjoy it oh and thatkyou to everyone who has read/subscribed/reviewed my chapters so far.

Thank you to these awesome peoples especially: **FezzesRCool25 **Who is awesome and has an amazing imagination and you should so read her stories. **Chadders** who's Harry Potter fanfiction has 36 chapters already. That a lot of amazing Harry Potter goodness. **Lady Alba **who says it is in my contract to mention her seen as she's my twin sister. **EelsRockMySocks **Oh by the way she's quite mad so ... YOU SHOULD LOVE HER! **hollydarkside **she likes CSI so move your butts over to her page and read for your lives!

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><p>The next few days went along normally and no one mentioned the incident in professor Davenport's class and he went back to being the best teacher the school had ever seen. Minussing Dumbledore of course. Charlie, Lexie, Chris and Thorne got used to their timetables and Lexie even managed to memorise her's.<p>

Charlie and Lexie were walking down to dinner one day, they had been looking at unicorns in care of magical creatures, a class which Thorne and Chris weren't in. When Andrew sidled up to them, a grin that would please the Cheshire cat on his face, he just laughed at them and walked in the direction of the great hall. With worried looks at each other they followed and sat down on the opposite side of the Gryffindor table as Thorne and Chris.

"What's wrong?" Said Thorne and Chris acknowledged them with a wave and kept eating, oblivious to their worried looks.

"We were just met by a worryingly happy Andrew Carson who laughed at us." Charlie informed them and Chris even stopped eating for a moment. They all looked further down the table to where Andrew was sitting and stared, he was momentarily taken aback by four sets of eyes, each a different colour, looking at him with identical expressions horror painted on them. He soon regained himself and smiled up at them with the sickly sweet smile on his face that meant trouble.

They went up to the common room and found a large group of first, second and third years crowding in a corner, obviously trying to hide whatever they were doing from Charlie and Lexie. Chris pushed his way through the crowd and found nothing. They weren't actually up to anything.

"Diversion" Lexie whispered and looked around again, taking in all of the room and analysing every last corner, she caught sight of a few – no more than five – sixth years. They glanced around and saw Lexie giving them evil eyes - and trust me evil eyes on Lexie is a scary thing – they all paled and gulped before turning quickly away form her and clearing up their things and shuffled to the portrait hole. Lexie stepped in front of them before they could get through.

"Give me them" she held out her hand and the sixth years promptly dropped the pieces of parchment into her outstretched hand before attempting to move around her. "Where do you think you're going?"

"To the library" one of them tried bravely

"Not a chance, what are these?" she smiled sweetly

"Plans." Another gulped and started to back off but there was a solid wall of Charlie behind him. The boys had cornered them.

"What plans?" Charlie growled, throwing around the fact he was head boy and the Quidditch captain.

"We don't know why but Andrew Carson told us to get them done or we'd get it." Lexie's expression softened, her genuinely nice personality was getting the better of her and it was clear she took pity on these students for being made to do something, especially by Andrew Carson.

"What is he planning to do to us?" She asked softly one of the boys handed over the plans that he had been clutching to his chest.

"Wait I thought you already gave her the plans" said Chris

"Keep up Chris those were fake" she snapped at him. The plans consisted of ten pages of detail that relied on a party that night to get the group drunk.

"The git drew up plans for a party to get us drunk and make us do stupid things?" Thorne raised his eyebrows at the pages he was reading.

"My page says he was gonna tell my dad" Lexie laughed, "My dad wouldn't tell us off, he would just laugh and tell us not to fall for it next time."

"This has to be the lamest plan ever!" Charlie exclaimed. "Alright guys you can go, just don't tell Andrew we know about it and make sure the party happens.

Thorne and Chris exchanged glances but Lexie caught on straight away, she knew exactly what he was going to go.

Lexie pulled a black dress over her head later that night, she smirked to herself. Charlie had filled them in on the plan at lunch just as their invites to the party arrived. She pulled back the curtains around her bed and stepped out into her dormitory. The other girls she shared it with were prancing around doing each other's make-up and picking out what they were going to wear from several trunks that were piled in the middle of the room. Lexie wrinkled her nose up at them, they were alright people but they were all giggly and girlie and it just didn't suit Lexie.

"Wow, you look nice Alexia" a girl name Nina said smoothing out her own blue silk party dress and putting on lipgloss, Lexie just smiled and walked down the stairs to the common room which had been decorated earlier that evening. There were already people dancing to the booming music and some of the younger students trying to get a decent amount of alcohol down their throats before McGonagall came to tell them to go to bed. The boys were over in a corner talking to Andrew who looked very pleased with himself for some strange reason.

The first hours of the party were pretty standard but after McGonagall told the younger years to clear off that just left the sixth and seventh years and a few rebellious fifth years. Andrew cranked up the music and opened another bottle of firewhisky. Chris, Thorne, Charlie and Lexie were under strict instruction not to get drunk or their plan would fall to pieces, Lexie had told the boys they could get drunk later after they had succeeded. Which had made the boys happy and Lexie roll her eyes at them. She often wondered if boys had brains at all. She looked over to her friends and saw them splashing water from their wands at each other. That would be a no then. She smiled secretly she would never tell them this but it made her happy to see them messing around, it was like when they were in first year again. Their water fight reminded her of when they became friends.

_The eleven years old filed silently into greenhouse three and stood either side of a bench covered in all sort of plants. They were all a little nervous this was their first Herbology lesson and none of them had any clue what these plants were. Professor Sprout came through the door after them and greeted them merrily and took a register. Every time a name was called a squeaky voice would timidly call out 'here' or 'yes professor'. She immediately launched into a speech about plants and leaves and various other things that no one listened to, four small boys from Gryffindor were laughing openly about three spiders that were racing to the top of Professor Sprout's hat which was covered in dirt and who knows what else._

"_All I want you to do this lesson is water these plants and choose one to draw, get on with it." Concluded Professor Sprout and the children burst into conversation, it was as if someone had suddenly switched on the volume. A few people were carefully picking up watering cans and drowning the plants just as they had been told to. One of these people was an eleven year old Charlie Weasley, he had picked up the biggest watering can he could and was climbing onto the bench to get all of the plants when he dropped the watering can and the water soaked a small girl with long brown curly hair. She looked up at him and scowled. In the meantime Professor Sprout came back into the greenhouse and saw what had happened._

"_Mr Weasley, get down off that table IMMEDIATELY!" She yelled at the top of her lungs and proceeded to stutter and splurt as the girl with brown hair climbed up onto the bench with her own watering can and tipped it upside down on Charlie's head. One boy couldn't stop laughing so Charlie and Lexie filled up their watering cans and both threw the water at him, unfortunately the water also hit a quiet boy with black hair and a straight face that looked permanent. Both boys' eyes widened and they scooped up handfuls of dirt from a burlap sack on the side and threw it at the girl with brown hair and Charlie, who ducked and the dirt hit Professor Sprout's hat. The four Gryffindor's all stopped immediately, especially when they saw who was stood next to her. A tight lipped Professor McGonagall did not look impressed and Charlie and the brown haired girl jumped off of the bench so quickly that they looked like blurs streaking through the air. All four of them were marched to Professor Dumbledore, terrified of what was going to happen. They had only been in Hogwarts a few days and they were already in serious trouble. As it turned out they had nothing to worry about, Professor Dumbledore laughed it off and they got away with one detention each and five points from Gryffindor. Their detention was to be with Hagrid, the half-giant groundskeeper._

"Lex!" Came Charlie's voice through her memory, "Lexie" he was waving his hand in front of her face and she batted it away. "You were daydreaming, well night-dreaming but not while you were asleep. Well I don't think you were asleep but you could have been, can you sleep stood up?"

"Charlie shut-up will you? It's time." A grin spread across Charlie's face as he motioned for Throne and Chris to join them. Together they made their way to where Andrew was sitting, unfortunately he wasn't getting drunk either so they would have to help him. Lexie picked up a full glass of firewhisky and pushed it into Andrew. Pretending to be drunk the four of them laughed and hiccuped and made him drink glass after glass. Soon enough he was seeing the funny side too. Lexie nodded to Charlie who winked at Thorne. The music was turned up, the light were turned down and everyone else was pushed to their dorms. Now there was just the five of them in the dark common room with the music up so loud that it didn't matter how much noise they made. Andrew laughed and pulled Lexie close, trying to kiss her but she pulled away laughing on the outside but reeling inside, mentally throwing up at the thought of kissing Andrew. Lexie led Andrew tot he spot right in front of the fire and the lights were thrown on. Chris and Thorne jumped from behind the chairs and landed on Andrew, Lexie stepped out of the way just in time to avoid being taken down herself. Thorne and Chris pinned Andrew to the ground and held him back while Lexie slipped ropes around his ankles. He was hoisted up into the air upside down and held there.

"Why did we not do this with magic?" Thorne complained holding his side and catching his breath. He was shot three dirty looks and soon shut up.

Now that Andrew was helpless, drunk oh an hung upside down in the air Charlie was prodding him with a stick.

"Charlie, stop prodding the captive with a stick, he isn't some wild animal that you haven't seen before." Lexie said slightly exasperated and Charlie stopped. Lexie walked in front of Andrew and took his wand which he had taken from his sleeve. He looked so helpless hung there.

"Erm, so what are we gonna do with him?" Chris asked, the others looked at each other puzzled,

"I dunno, I didn't get this far with the plan, I fell asleep instead." Thorne admitted.

"It's a bloody good job I have a brain isn't it?" Lexie asked and she performed a silent bat bogey hex. As the curse struck Andrew started flailing around, flapping his arms like some type of giant bird hybrid. The four of them laughed and laughed until it hurt too much.

"I say we leave him here till someone finds him in the morning" Charlie hiccuped through tears of laughter. He slumped down on the sofa right in front of where Andrew hung and resumed prodding him with a stick, this time Lexie couldn't stop him for laughing, She flopped down next to him and Chris brought over the last bottle of firewhisky. All of them squashed on the sofa and drunk the fire whisky.

"TO OUR DEAR MATE ANDY!" Chris shouted at the top of his voice.

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><p>AN: Wow, I enjoyed writing this chapter, ARE YOU HAPPY NOW ALICE? You do know that reviews make sick people better don't you? cough cough sigh.


	6. Four house elves

A/N: Hello, my shiny people. You may have forgotten me, I am your shiny leader and you should read my fanfiction!

I am dedicatingthis chapter to my favourtie shiny people of all: Caity taty, Louisy weasy, gracey facey, chuchiface alice, alice H, captain caravan - holly and Kelly! Love you guys. Yes, yes I am in quite a good, crazy hyper mood at the moment aren't I?

Thankyou to all of my shiny followers but especially: The insanely awesome (and very smart) **Chadders** you should read her fanfic, the kind of wild and unruly but amazing **EelsRockMySocks** I love you five, My twinni twin twin **Lady Alba** because apparently it's written down somewhere I have to thank you because we live together and last but not least the hysterical and kind of creepy **FezzesRCool25** for being the perfect Chuchiface. And to anyone else who has read my fanfic so far. Yup, that just about sums it up. I love this chapter, please ignore any typo's.

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><p>Chapter 4<p>

Charlie woke the next morning with fuzzy memories of the previous night and the party, that was until after he saw an angry Andrew glaring at them, still upside down. Charlie chuckled to himself, wow it must have hurt to be upside down all night, he noticed that being squashed on a small sofa with his three best friends wasn't as bad as he had thought it would be. Alexia was curled up on one side of him, mumbling softly into he hair, Chris was on his other side leaning on Thorne with his arm around him. This made Charlie laugh even harder and soon woke Alexia up. She looked up at him blearily with the worst case of bedhead he'd seen in a while, he pointed to Chris and Thorne and soon enough Lexie was giggling beside him. They both got up, very carefully, so that they didn't disturb the two sleeping beauties and made their way to their separate dorms.

When they came back down almost all of the house had woken up and wee either laughing at Andrew hanging upside down, blue in the face or Thorne and Chris cuddled up together. Charlie and Lexie looked at each other and nodded, putting non-verbal charms on themselves to magnify their voices they smiled sneakily and crept up, one at Thorne's side of the sofa and one on Chris'. Lexie held up three fingers, then two, then one.

"Thorne-"

"Chris." They shouted at the same time and the three sleeping boys jerked awake turning bright red after seeing all of the people around them and realising why they were all laughing. Casting the counter charm to their non-verbal magnifying charms they collapsed back onto the sofa laughing harder than ever. So hard that none of them could get Andrew down, they decided it would be better for him if they went to get some breakfast and calm down before even considering getting him down.

"Alright class, today we are going to do some duelling, non-verbally of course, Pair off and we'll see who is left out of the pairs at the end of the lesson. Get to it!" Professor Davenport announced merrily. Lexie paired with Charlie and they got to work moving the tables out of the way to create enough space for them to duel in.

"He's in a happy mood today isn't he?" Charlie said sort of bemused.

"Yup, I bet he hasn't heard about our little party last night yet." Thorne chimed in.

"Merlin's beard, he's going to skin me when he finds out!" Lexie cried attracting many odd looks from the pairs nearby.

"Don't worry, we'll protect you" Chris jumped in front of he to demonstrate, unfortunately Charlie had just fired his first spell at her and it sent him flying. It also caused his hair to grow longer and longer. The class had stopped to watch and gasped as his hair grew longer than his body and still kept growing. Then there was a knock on the door and the class stopped looking at Christian and focussed their attention on who was walking through the door.

Professor McGonagall stepped through the door with her I-am-not-impressed face firmly in place, there was a sharp intake of breath when Professor Dumbledore practically skipped in behind her. Professor Davenport's smile faded and he briefly closed his eyes as if he knew what was coming, he then turned his attention to the other teachers that had come in.

"What can I do for you professors?" He smiled at them curtiously,

"We need to borrow four of you students and you if possible" Professor Dumbledore chimed happily.

"Are there any particular students you would like?"

"Well not particularly but it would be good if we could have, oh I don't know say: Christian Harris, Thorne Stone, Charlie Weasley and Alexia Davenport?"

"Of course Professor but I cannot leave my class, you see we are duelling this lesson and I really don't think-"

"Do not worry Professor Davenport, Mr Filch will watch your class." Professor McGonagall pulled Filch out of thin air and pushed him into the classroom. Professor Davenport looked abysmal as Filch grumbled all the way to the front of the room and slumped resolutely in the chair.

"All right then, now that is sorted lets all go" Professor Dumbledore cheered the four students followed Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall out of the door and Professor Davenport brought up the back of the group. They found an empty classroom not far away and the four students took the front desks, Professor Dumbledore lounged in the teachers chair, Professor McGonagall stood just beside the desk and Professor Davenport hovered anxiously by the door.

"Do you four know anything about a party in Gryffindor common room last night?" Professor McGonagall got straight into the interrogation and they weren't even given time to sort through their thoughts.

"Yes, Professor." They chorused

"Did you know that Andrew Carson was found hanging upside down from a rope in the middle of the common room this morning?"

Their eyes widened and they looked at each other, they had forgotten to get him down! Thorne gulped and Charlie paled a little.

"N-no professor." they stuttered back.

"Did you know he was hung upside down in the common room while he was drunk and poked with a stick until his captors fell asleep, also drunk?"

"Um... well...maybe...I don't think so...we might have done...we could have...professor." They mumbled, their heads down and looking intently at their desks. Professor Davenport shook his head, he had paled a lot and was looking at Alexia with narrowed eyes. He looked disappointed more than anything and that made Lexie upset, she hated to see her daddy disappointed with her. Tears stung her eyes but she didn't let them fall.

"We're sorry professor, we didn't mean to leave him up there or to hurt him in the first place, he was planning on getting us into trouble and then telling you," Alexia turned to look at her father whose eyes had widened, obviously upset that someone would do such a thing to his little girl. " So when we found out we wanted to show him that he couldn't do something like that and we stayed sober all night, I promise." By the time she had finished speaking she was looking at her father, desperate to regain trust and have him stop being disappointed with her.

"Well, now that's cleared up I would rather like to go for a walk in the grounds, I haven't been near the whomping willow in a while. I may go and see it." Dumbledore declared and the all looked at him utterly astonished that he had just let the matter drop. "But do try and clean up your own mess next time, it took four house elves, stood on each others' shoulders to get Mr Carson down."

"I think Professor Dumbledore means that you must never do a thing like that again, you are very lucky the headmaster hasn't expelled you." Professor McGonagall stated

"Oh no, I meant next time to clear it up themselves, although it did give me a good chuckle I have to say, how did you get him to stay up that long?" Professor Dumbledore scrutinized them eagerly.

"It was really easy-" Chris began but upon catching the look of ferocity on Professor McGonagall's face he stopped and resumed examining his desk.

"That is all we need from you, you must apologise to Mr Carson at lunch time."

"Yes professors" they chorused and led the way out of the room with Professor Davenport following behind them. Apparently Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall were staying in that room, it looked as if Professor McGonagall was telling Professor Dumbledore off for giving them the potential opportunity to do something like that again. Charlie grinned at Lexie but she shook her head and hung back to talk to her dad. She linked her arm through his and waited for the others to go further ahead.

"Hey, daddy"

"How could you do something like that to a fellow house member Alexia?" He asked, he was still disappointed with her.

"He was planning on doing something similar to us."

"I know and I wouldn't have stood for it if it had been you, you could have just come and told me and let me deal with him."

"No offence daddy but I don't want to be known as the girl who gets her daddy to sort out her problems, I have been coming here without you for six years, I can look after myself."

"I know you can, I came here this year because your sister is growing up as well, she's at boarding school with her friends and the house was so empty without the two of you there. The school had a job going and I thought being close to at least one of my daughter's would be a little better."

"Daddy, Poppy is only ten, she still needs you."

"You both do secretly" he said pulling on my hair.

"Yes we do, well, stay on here after the year is over, Poppy comes here next time remember. She'll definitely need you for her first year." He still had a piece of my hair.

"I remember when you used to wear your hair in little plaits, your mother used to do them for you and when he passed away I tried to but they were, well rubbish."

"Daddy, I love you and all but I could really do with you not relaying any of these memories to well to anyone."

"Alright angel."

"And don't call me angel in a crowded hallway, or anywhere we aren't alone."

"Alright angel."

"Daddy"

"We _are_ alone."

The rest of the day didn't hold much excitement for them. In fact the only other thing they did was to apologise to Andy. They had free periods after lunch and having no homework left – due to Thorne's constant nagging about not doing it when he could be sneaking around in the dark – they sat in the common room doing nothing for a while.

"Let's go see Hagrid" Charlie said abruptly, sitting up at one end of the sofa that he had been stretched out on, he showered Lexie with paper confetti he had been making. She had been laid on the floor next to the sofa doodling in the back of one of her schoolbooks. She was now hidden under a pile of handmade snow, courtesy of Charlie. She shook the paper off and sat up too, Charlie nearly stood on her.

"Alright, why?" she faltered

"Because I am bored out of my empty mind."

"I knew it!" Chris said, standing up and stretching out.

"Knew what?" Thorne asked, feeling left out at not saying anything yet.

"That Charlie's mind was empty." Replied Chris, as if it was the most obvious thing on earth.

"Yeah, empty of all other thought apart from Lexie." Throne whispered to Chris, sniggering.

"I heard that!" Charlie said angrily at the same time as Lexie said it kind of scared. Throne and Chris just walked out laughing together and whispering about the two of them. This left them to walk to Hagrid's together and they found that for the first time since they had met there was a slight uncomfortable silence. They kind of looked at each other and very slowly edged towards the door. Before they got there Charlie stopped and very quickly – compared to the pace they had been walking at – lent in and kissed Lexie. All of the awkwardness of the silence rushed out and was replaced with a very strong desire for Lexie to kiss Charlie back. She did. She turned red, he turned very red and they both sat down looking at each other. Charlie let out a long breath and started tapping his fingers on the wooden table next to his chair. Lexie mustered up the courage to talk first.

"Wow, that was very unexpected … and creepily nice."

"Yeah, it was. They weren't lying though." Charlie coughed back

"What?"

"I do think about you quite a lot."

"OK, just promise me it isn't in a creepy stalker way."

"I promise."

"We're not going to Hagrid's are we?" Lexie asked half hopefully and half awkwardly. Charlie shook his head and pulled her back towards him, kissing her again.

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><p>AN: TA for reading this chapter, now my loyal shiny people you should review so that your shiny leader can be happy and write more for you beautiful shiny followers.


	7. Awkward Turtle

**A/N: **Hey Guys! It's me, you maight have forgotten me, it has been ages since I have posted but here you are, chapter five. This is just a filler chapter so it's not very long or very goos but it's the best I can do at the momnet. I'M SO SORRY THAT I HAVEN'T POSTED IN AGES! I can't really be bothered to type the names of everyone I want to thank so you know who you are - and if ya don't TUFF LUCK! Love ya. Now you will read the chapter - my crystal ball says so.

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><p>Chapter 5 – Awkward Turtle<p>

The next day was very awkward for Alexia and Charlie, at first they tried not acknowledging each other or what had happened. This didn't work as they found themselves squashed next to each other at breakfast the next day and trying very hard not to breathe for fear of accidentally brushing against each other. They also tried to act as though nothing had happened but this didn't work either, they just couldn't talk to each other normally, they found themselves saying things that could lead the others to believe that something had happened and every time Chris or Thorne mentioned that their friends Clara and David were dating Alexia went red in the face. They ended up having to tell Chris and Thorne who had watched them act awkwardly around each other all morning and laughed about it.

"Um, Chris, Thorne. Could you two come over here?" Alexia said gently they did as they were told and raised their eyebrows when Lexie took Charlie's hand – he was trying to back out of the room – and kept hold of it.

"Lexie and I are dating!" Charlie blurted and suddenly colour returned to his face with full force, he had to sit down. Chris and Thorne were laughing.

"He's not joking guys" Lexie said but they still laughed.

"We know, we've known all day. Peeves saw you and shouted it around the corridors last night." Thorne spluttered "we've been watching you struggle all day!" Charlie looked up and started to go red, then he went purple, then he went an almost frightening shade of blue before he began breathing again. He was not happy. He spluttered for a minute before managing to say:

"You bloody gits!" and returning to resembling a rainbow. All of the time Alexia sat next to him and comforted him, she was laughing herself, after getting over the initial anger she had decided that it must have been quite funny to watch. She was being as gentle about it as possible but at lunch time Charlie still didn't find it very funny.

Charlie was still not talking to Throne or Chris as thy sat together in Transfiguration – the last lesson of the day, even professor McGonagall seemed to have heard about it and was trying her hardest to keep a straight face even as she took a note (which was flying towards Charlie from Chris) and saw an animated picture of Charlie and Lexie kissing. She handed it to Charlie and for the first time in the history of ever, she allowed him to write a note back. Charlie threw a screwed up, animated note back at Chris, it showed Charlie hexing Chris and then Chris being eaten by a huge white dragon because he couldn't move. It was very graphic, Chris whitened an looked wide eyed at Charlie who just smiled and waved at him. This made Lexie laugh even more than Chris' note had. It also unnerved her, her mind wandered to the forbidden forest where something no one knew about was waiting for her to get out of class and see him.

"Lex?" Charlie whispered, looking worried.

"huh?" She replied

Charlie laughed "You zoned out!"

"oh, sorry. Just thinking, if McGonagall knows, do you reckon my dad'll know?"

"I dunno, I think we're about to find out." Lexie followed Charlie's gaze down the long transfiguration corridor to a blob, steadily getting larger, even from the distance away it was she could tell that it was her father. As he got closer, they saw his face, he looked untroubled and happy. Then he saw Charlie; his expression changed dramatically, he looked like he was trying to decide whether it would be better to be happy for them or whether he should be threatening Charlie to make sure he looked after his baby girl. He decided on a bit of both, he reached them at long last and he smiled at them first hugged them both at the same time.

"I knew it! I knew you liked each other, I saw it right from the beginning!" he turned to to Lexie "Oh, look at my baby girl, all grown up" Lexie's eyes widened in horror.

"DAD! What have I told you?"

"I know princess but it's so hard"

"oh jesus christ dad not again, if you don't stop being so-"

"So proud of my little girl" he cut Lexie off mid sentence and she didn't really know how to react after he had just said he was proud of her. All of her anger at him dissolved and she hugged him harder.

"Daddy, I love you"

"Look who's being the soppy one now," he put on a fake voice in an imitation of a really chavvy teenage girl "Errrrr, you're embarrassing me get off!" All three of them laughed together but Professor Davenport added another bit on the end of his sentence "and Weasley, if I hear a single thing about my daughter being upset, I'll hold you personally responsible and string you up by your throat on the Whomping Willow." Lexie rolled her eyes but didn't stop her father from talking, it seemed important to him that Charlie be warned about hurting her.

"Of course sir" Charlie replied in all seriousness which made Lexie laugh. Her father turned on her and gave her a stern look that clearly said she shouldn't be laughing at such things, this just made her laugh more. He quietened his voice and took Lexie by the arm, steering her to one side, away from Charlie. "Now darling you remember what we talked about before you came to school this year. You may have gone seventeen but you are still only a little girl. If Charlie – or any other boy for that matter – tries anything that is anything more than hand holding you tell me OK?"

"Daddy, I've already kissed Charlie."

"I know I meant anything more than that you know like-"

"I KNOW!" With that she hurried (red faced) over to Charlie again who just looked at her questioningly – after obviously hearing her outburst. She reached up and kissed him until she could no longer see her father's figure at the other end of the corridor again.

"What was all of that about?" Charlie asked her, incredulously

"I think my dad just tried to give me 'the talk'" she replied taking his hand and dragging him all of the way up to Gryffindor common room.

"Really?" Charlie seemed to find this fact highly amusing until Lexie kindly reminded him that this morning it had been him in her position. They went and sat with Chris and Throne in front of the fire, both looked up as they sat down.

"Where have you two been? There's only ten minutes of the free period left, it's dinner time soon." It was Thorne that asked but Chris had this look on his face which just meant trouble.

"Now now children you can tell us where you've been but I don't think we want to know the details." Both Chris and Throne rolled around laughing and so did a couple of nosy buggers who were listening to their conversation.

"We've been talking to my dad actually" Lexie replied indignantly.

"And anyway we're not likely to tell the likes of you two what we've been doing anyway, you couldn't keep a secret if your lives depended on it!" Charlie added but Lexie had foreseen what would happen if he said that and was covering her face with her hands and shaking her head.

"So, you could have been off doing god knows what and we wouldn't know so I think you were lying to us," Chris stood up on his chair and wobbled around a bit before finding his balance – those squashy arm-chairs aren't easy to stand in you know. "OI! Everyone listen up, some of you might not be aware but these two" he gestured to Lexie and Charlie have recently started going out." There were a few giggles from the younger years and some whistling from their fellow seventh years and anyone on the Quidditch team.

"Chris don't" if it had been anyone else in the whole school who said it, they would have been ignored but since it was Thorne who said it, he looked down and took pity on them "Alright you nosy buggars go back to doing your homework and stop listening in." There were arguments form many people who insisted that they weren't being nosy, that it was Chris who had wanted them to list in the first place but he just swore at them and told them to mind their own business next time someone wanted to have a private conversation with their friends. Nevertheless, when Lexie climbed the stairs to the girls' dormitories she found herself surrounded by what seemed to be every other girl in the 5th, 6th and 7th years. She groaned and fought her way to her four poster bed, barely hearing the questions flying at her, she caught snippets of some which sounded a lot like: "Have you kissed him yet ?...", "Is he a good kisser?..." and "Do you love him?..." She drew the curtains around her bed closed and there were disappointed mutters from the other girls. Lexie tried to ignore them as she jumped around on her bed, trying to wiggle on her PJ bottoms without falling off and seriously embarrassing herself, she closed her eyes that night, very glad of the peace and quiet. But she didn't dream of Charlie as she had done the night before, she dreamt of a huge white dragon, she was riding the dragon, flying over lakes and between hills, she was dressed in protective leather clothes and her dragon had a leather saddle on. He turned his head to her and spoke in a deep voice – ages with waiting for her.

"Rider" it said before turning back to watching where it was going. She cast a spell and for a second she felt exactly what her dragon was feeling.

"Lycan, I a home." She whispered.

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><p><strong>AN: **Ta for reading and I promise to post quicker next time my shiny minions. REVIEW UNTIL YOU CAN NO LONGER TYPE! mwahahahahahahahaha ^X_x^


	8. Shadow on the moon

**A/N:** Hey guys, you see this chapter was much quicker than the last one. Reviews would make me write quicker and upload quicker.

**This chapter is dedicated to Caity Taty because she reviewed the last chapter and she is one of my bestest friends ever.**

I am going to point out that she was supposed to read it ages ago but at least she has read it. So read on, I like thid chapter, the first bit was really fun to write. Enjoy!**  
><strong>

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><p><strong>Shadow on the moon<strong>

Lexie woke up to find the curtain around her four poster bed open and at least eight faces watching her intently. She screamed as she opened her eyes and rolled off of her bed onto the floor with a thud. There was a lot of sniggering from the people that surrounded but a familiar voice called out and silenced them.

"What _are_ you doing down there?" It was the voice of Chris though for one frightening second he sounded just like a diamond scaled dragon might. Hang on a minute, it was CHRIS! Boys couldn't get into the girl's dormitories. How the hell had he managed to get in.

"How, how did you get in?" Lexie spluttered, picking herself up from the floor and sitting back on her bed.

"I'm not in." Lexie was puzzled for a moment but a couple of the other girls moved from in front of the fire and she saw Chris' head sat in the middle of the flames, Lexie rubbed her eyes, refusing to believe what she saw. Chris' head was laughing at her.

"Cool right? I saw my uncle talking to my dad like that and thought I'd try it. Now I can get into your dormitory and no other guy can!"

"Why do you sound so happy about that, there is a reason that boys can't get into our dormitory you know" Lexie was laughing but knew this was going to mean a lot less hours on her own.

"Oh well!"

"Do you know why I woke up surrounded by, well every girl in Gryffindor?"

"Oh yeah, you talk in your sleep, did I forget to tell you?"

"YES! What was I saying?"

"Nothing good, I thought you'd be dreaming about lover, boy who by the way also talks in his sleep so I don't get any peace, it's Lexie this, Lexie that. You were just mumbling about some animal I dunno. You said white and flying so it was probably a hippogriff, you girls love that type of stuff right?" He sounded nonchalant enough but it worried Lexie that she had been talking in her sleep. Who knows what she might have said, thank the lord that the rest of the dorm was asleep too for most of the night.

"The other girls were probably hoping that you'd say something about lover boy."

"Yeah we love that stuff. Don't call Charlie lover boy, it hurts him."

"Awwwww I'm sorry did I hurt the poor ickle boy's feelings?" Lexie threw her pillow at the fire, temporarily forgetting that it was his head in the fire. The pillow caught flames and Lexie hastily put it out before all of the screaming started from the other girls.

"Um, Chris. Would you mind getting lost for a while?"

"Why?"

"I wanna get dressed now"

"I'm definitely not going!"

"CHRIS!" Before she had even finished shouting his name his head had disappeared from the fire.

Lexie stepped into the common room, ten minute later after putting out the fire and making sure not one single flame still lived. The image of Chris' face first thing in a morning was not something she wanted to get used to. Charlie was waiting for her and managed not to burst out laughing when Chris winked at her.

"I guess Chris told you about his break through then" she said rolling her eyes.

"Yup, I'm guessing right about now that the fire in your dorm is firmly dead."

"Yup." The group made their way down to breakfast, still laughing about the dormitory situation, where a very, very, _very_ minute first year was buzzing around. Chris, Thorne, Charlie and Lexie sat down in their usual seats, about halfway down the table and the minutes they touched the wood of the bench the first year shot over to them started talking – apparently telling a story – so fast that they only heard a high pitched buzzing in their ears. When she paused to take a breath one of her friends took up the story, by this time they were attracting quite a lot of attention and even some of the professors were watching. After about twenty minutes of laughing and the whole hall looking Professor McGonagall started down the hall towards the two very, very, _very_, minute first years. They both fell silent when they saw her striding towards them the hall sighed with relief at the silence.

"Miss Salem, would you mind telling me what all of the noise is about?"

"No professor" said the girl's friend quickly seeing that the other girl had frozen in fear, "Go on Mina" she gave Mina a little push. Mina seemed to come out of shock long enough to say one word "forest" before fainting and her friend giving a little squeal. Professor McGonagall rolled her eyes a little, causing Thorne to choke on his piece of toast.

"Miss Davenport would you mind escorting," she gestured to the two girls "up to the hospital wing; then bring them to my office so that I can find out what all of that fuss was about."

Lexie nodded and stood up, taking the conscious girl by the sleeve and levitating the girl who fainted. It was a good job she was so small. They made their way up to the hospital wing in silence and after Madam Pomfrey declared the conscious girl fine Lexie thought that she might as well ask about what they saw in the forest. Lexie had been in the forest herself, once for a detention and many other times without anyone knowing.

"What were you doing in the forest?" Lexie tried to sound interested rather than scathing.

"A group of us heard that there were werewolves in there and we wanted to know if it was true so we promised that we would go in before anyone else got up and noticed we were missing so this morning we met in the entrance hall but three of them chickened out. Only Mina and me were brave enough to go in. We went in but we lost the path-"

"There isn't a path." Lexie ha said it rather bitterly and the little girl looked very confused, "sorry, carry on."

"We got lost and ended up going all the way through the forest, we were terrified and it got worse, there were centaurs and unicorns and bowtruckles but right at the middle of the forest there is a huge clearing. In the middle was a giant white marble rock – well we thought it was a rock but when we got closer we saw it had scales. Mina got scared and squeaked when she saw the scales; we think we must have woken it up because it unfurled itself and instead of a rock it was a huge white Dragon!" Lexie gasped and went white but the little girl seemed to take it as worry about them rather than worry for the dragon. "It growled but didn't try to hurt us, this is going to sound mental but I think it had a saddle on it." Lexie thought back to the last time she was in the forest, trying to remember if she'd hidden the large leather saddle like she usually did, she didn't think she had.

"Oh no" she gasped and looked down at the little girl who was now watching her friend who was slowly trying to sit up. "You can't tell McGonagall about the dragon!"

"Why, she can get rid of-"

"NO! Listen to me, if you promise to tell McGonagall that a group of centaurs chased you away from the forest I will explain everything to you and your friend OK?"

"O- OK" She stuttered, stunned by Lexie's sudden change in attitude. Madam Pomfrey let the three of them go and Lexie took the two girls down to Professor McGonagall's office, stopping outside of the door.

"You remember our agreement?" Both girls nodded, "OK, in you go" and she knocked on the door and pushed the girls through it.

"Thank you miss Davenport." Came Professor McGonagall's reply from through the already closed door

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** So what did you think? Who has guessed what is going on? To be honest I don't think it's very hard to guess what is going on but ... You guys need to review just to tell me what you reckon is going to happen next.


	9. Diamond Scales

**A/N: **Finally, I have got around to finishing this chapter, it has been sitting in my documents for months waiting for me to have time to finish it. SO here it is! Enjoy, Review and wait for the next chapter ... which won't take as long, I promise. This chapter is dedicated to amazing exam results and two weeks without stress before we got back to school for year 11!

**Diamond scales**

Lexie was waiting outside McGonagall's office when the girls came out of it. McGonagall herself gave Lexie one of those be-careful-about-where-you-leave-your-textbook looks, only it wasn't a textbook that the two very, very, _very,_ minute first years had found. It was her Dragon, _big _difference.

"Miss Davenport I would like a word with you before you leave."

"Um, alright." She turned towards the girls and said "later" before entering the office. Professor McGonagall's office was a nice room, large and homely due to the tins of ginger newts and the tartan rug which laid on the floor in front of the lit fire.

"Yes Professor?" She said politely.

"Miss Davenport, the two girls who have just been in here claim that centaurs frightened them away from the forest this morning. As the forest is out of bounds I have given them a detention with Hagrid for tomorrow evening. However, as head girl of Gryffindor it is your job to make sure the younger years have counselling and to make sure they do not do anything so dangerous." Professor McGonagall said it in a disapproving voice but she also said it as though she knew they were lying to her. She was giving Lexie the chance to tell her the truth and for one moment Lexie was going to. She opened her mouth to tell her head of house but a deep voice rang out in her head. '_Carefully child, it is my secret too' _and she shut her mouth quickly.

"Of course professor, I won't let it happen again, I didn't know a group of them were planning on going into the forest."

"Make sure you do next time. And Miss Davenport, I hope that there will be no trips into the forest for anyone, no matter what might be hidden in there." She knows, Alexia thought to herself and for the second time she almost told McGonagall about Lycan but something deep down stopped her. She held this secret too close to her heart. There was one person she had to tell though.

Charlie.

The first girl looked excited, it was Mina, the one who had fainted. The second girl, whom Lexie later found out was called Hayley, looked downright petrified.

"What did you tell McGonagall?" Lexie asked quickly

"That it was a centaur, but it wasn't it was your dra-" the rest of the excited little girl's sentence had been cut off my Lexie's hand as it covered her mouth.

"Ok, you really need to stop saying exactly what you think, or I am personally going to make sure that you _can never_ say what you think again, or say anything ever again for that matter, get me?" Mina whitened but nodded, "good girl, I'm going to let you go now." She did.

"gon." the girl finished and began to skip away as Lexie shouted out in frustration. Her friend giggled and started to follow her.

"HEY! Where do you think you're going?" Lexie shouted after them

"To see your," She hesitated on the look which seemed to have latched itself to Lexie's features, "... your pet!"

"You can't get out that way!" Both girls turned around giggling even more, they looked even smaller as they zoomed in front of Lexie. "I can't believe I'm doing this." She sighed to herself and shot off after them and to her dragon.

They reached the edge of the forest around the same time, Lexie was faster than the two girls but she got tired just as quickly.

"Right." She panted, grabbing hold of the back of the girls' jackets, "wait here a minute, let me catch my breath.

"Does your boyfriend know about the dragon?" Mina asked.

"Wow, news travels fast around here doesn't it? No, he doesn't and you two aren't going to tell him, are you?"

"No." They chorused

"But you shouldn't keep secrets from you boyfriend, you wouldn't if you loved him." Said Mina, this earned her an elbow from Hayley.

"Keep your nose out, I'm not keeping things from him and I do love him." Lexie said this tersely and through tight lips. The girls giggled, and Lexie thought to herself: _now I remember why I hate first years._

"Are you going to marry him?" Lexie looked stunned at the first years and could feel herself going ever so slightly red.

"Are you going to have children with him?" At this one she definitely went red and apparently looked guilty because the girls gasped and looked at each other with misty eyes.

"ARE you pregnant?" They practically screamed.

"NO!" Lexie roared back. The girls looked a little disappointed at this. "Now keep the noise down or you'll draw attention to us. The three of crept into the forest and for a while they followed the thick overgrown path, more than once, Lexie had to use magic to cut them a path through the roots of trees which covered the ground. After a while there was no path, there wasn't even a worn trail. Despite the fact that the forest was forbidden, a fair number of students tried their luck at getting through it. Most never got past the path but Lexie had some experience with getting through the thick undergrowth. With her leading the other, smaller girls along they made a steady pace and it took them less than an hour to reach the clearing. It was empty.

"Lycan!" She called and then again in her head _Lycan, I'm sorry I had to tell them!_ There was a sound like thunder as a white creature, the size of three houses lumbered into view. He was unable to fly due to the thick canopy which stretched above him, trapping him and making him seethe.

_I know little one. Just be careful._

The girls gasped and Lexie thought she heard a small, whimpering scream from Mina but she didn't really care, she was looking fro the one thing which had given her away … and there it was. A deep brown saddle sat on the dragon's back, it was thick and sturdy, tieing around the thickest of the spikes down his strong back, there was a hole in the middle of the saddle for another of the spikes to poke through and the next spike appeared just behind the end of the saddle. This made the saddle look as though it seated two people rather than just one. Lexie had made the saddle herself and found that it was more comfortable to have the saddle stretch over the space between three spikes rather thank cramming herself and all of her things in the smallish space between two spikes. It also gave her the security she needed so that she wouldn't have to hold on whilst flying. She sighed to herself and went over to unsaddle Lycan. Though the saddle was comfortable enough to fly in for long periods of time, it wasn't so comfortable to keep on for over a day and he had been wearing it for nearly two days.

_Thank you._

_You're welcome, I should've taken it off before._

Lexie turned towards the girls and took a deep breath, carrying the saddle over to it's hiding place, wedged between two of the biggest trees in the forbidden forest. As she turned to them she said "This is Lycan, he's a dragon, not your average dragon, he's tame."

_Tame? Watch what you say child, I could swallow you whole._

_But you wouldn't, you love me too much and how else do I explain the … it … YOU ? _

_You could try explaining about bonded dragons._

_Alright fine._

"Scratch the last, he's not tame, he's a bonded dragon. Which means he and I … that is to say the two of us … we can share thoughts with each other and he is some what tame-"

_GRRRRR_

"Um, Some what more refined than wild dragons." The two girls gaped at the huge bulk of the dragon stood before them. "Ever since dragons were created from the lava contained within the ancient volcanoes, some have been bonded with humans, only humans. No one knows why but many think it was an attempt to bring the two races together, you know because of all the dragon hunting and selling scales and spikes on the black market. The bonded pairs have never really come into the open but those who know about them present their children – at the age of 17, when they come of age – before the bonded eggs and if one hatches it s their bond-mate."

The two girls stared and looked rapidly between Lexie and Lycan. "Can we ride the dragon?" They asked at the same time. They made the mistake of asking Lexie and would soon find out how much of a mistake it was.

The boom of Lycan's roar would only sound like thunder up at the castle but in the crowded clearing in the forest, it sounded like a voice. Deep and much older than the dragon himself was but a voice none the less.

_**Do not presume I am a mere animal, when you yourselves have only just hatched. I know more than the both of you put together. Nor should you torment my bond-mate as you have. Leave here and speak of me to no one! And do not bother my bond-mate any more.**_

It was more than just a voice, it was ground shaking growl and the two girls ran from the clearing, whiter than they had been this morning when they had first encountered Lycan.

_They are only eleven, there was not need to scare them so much._

_It was necessary, they will not tell a soul about me now._

_Still, now you sound mean._

__**A/N: **So there you have it, I would like to formally introduce you to Lycan. He will be with the story from now on. Thank you again for persevering with my fanfiction it's moving along now so I'll see you all soon ... well I won't see you but you know what I mean.**  
><strong>


	10. All Is Not Lost

******A/N:  
><strong>Two chapters in one week, you lucky things and I've got the next one on the way so that one should be up before Wednesday. Trying to complete as many chapters as I can before we go back on Wednesday. This chapter is dedicated to the Phantom of the Opera because I went to see it last Wednesday and I am experiencing serious Phantom love. Read, enjoy and review my lucky ducklings and yes I have gone completely potty but what do you expect?

**All is not lost**

Lexie had not stayed with Lycan for long after the girls had left, she felt guilty and corrupt and there was nothing Lycan could say to change her mind, he tried flattering her and suggested flying but Lexie just wasn't in the mood so instead he sent her on her way and told her only to come back when she was in a better mood. Something about the sorting hat's song came to mind and she felt fear bubble inside her, no it wasn't exactly fear, it was as strange emotion she had only felt once before. When the sorting hat sang. It had been gnawing at her since the welcoming feast and she could not rid herself of it. Two lines kept jumping out at her:

_A badly kept secret,_

_All leads to the lie._

She thought about it long and hard and could only come up with one answer, she had to tell Charlie about Lycan. She was sure Charlie would be over the moon to find out about a dragon living so close. _Goodness knows he loves them enough _she thought to herself and smiled. It was Lycan she worried about. It was so risky, telling people about him, many people still traded dragon skin items and used their scales in jewellery. Their spikes also made priceless blades for any type of weapon, blades that never cracked or broke or failed their owner. They were hard to come by though, this only made them more valuable. Lycan was not happy about her telling Charlie but not for the reasons she had assumed. The dragon knew of her feelings for Charlie and saw regularly that she trusted him as much as she trusted Lycan. He was not stupid enough to ignore the thoughts of his bond-mate for he knew she had a good heart and she judged Charlie to the highest of standards. No, he was worried because of the sorting hat's song. Lycan had never before thought any creature as clever as himself – a common trait amongst bonded dragons as they spent many years in their shells watching the world before meeting their bond-mate and they have the knowledge of their ancestors burned into their memories – yet the hat was something new. As far as Lycan was concerned it shouldn't be able to do what it could and this made it an extraordinary thing, therefore he was inclined to listen to it. The last lines still worried him, _A badly kept secret, _he thought to Lexie, _do not tell him_.

Charlie was waiting for her in the common room when she got back and she was shocked to see that although she felt like she had only been gone a few hours, she had in fact missed all of her morning lessons and lunch. Her stomach grumble in protest of missing food and Charlie smiled and pulled a bread roll out of his bag. Lexie laughed and took it gratefully, both her and Charlie had an hour free before they had to go to care of magical creatures class so they sat down and she prepared herself to tell him.

"Where've you been all morning" Charlie asked but before she could reply he cut in, "I covered for you in defense against the dark arts, I told your dad you were helping professor McGonagall and you'd probably be gone all day, he seemed alright with that but I think he was planning to ask McGonagall if you were with her first lesson, you were there weren't you?"

"Yeah, I was." Lexie replied, thinking about how wonderful Charlie was, he wasn't upset she'd ditched him for most of the day, made excuses for her so she wouldn't get in trouble with her dad and he snagged her some lunch because he hadn't seen her and there could have been the slightest possibility she would be hungry.

"So what was wrong with the first year this morning?"

"Oh, um," she said, this was her chance to tell him, he had come up with the perfect excuse for her to tell him. She thought of Lycan again and heard his voice in her head, not saying anything but just giving a warning hum to let her know he was listening. "There was something in the forest, they went in this morning as part of a dare and got chased away. You should know, there is something in the forest which shouldn't be there, something which has never been there before," she hesitated, looking into his blue eyes which were clear of any deceit, he trusted her fully and she was hiding things from him. How would those eyes look when they found out what secrets she had been keeping, she couldn't bare the thought so she took a breath and carried on, "I don't know what it is but apparently it's dangerous, McGonagall told me to tell you we need to try and make sure no Gryffindors go in and try and get a look at it. Oh, they got chased out by centaurs."

"Oh, Ok. You have to promise me you wont go into the forest either then." He seemed satisfied when she nodded. She hated herself for lying to him, it just wasn't right, for the first time she questioned whether she loved him. _Of course you love him, that is why you didn't tell him, you want to protect him. Don't worry child, you'll tell him eventually. _Lycan's voice in her head was reassuring and she put it all behind her and looked forwards, to the future. It would be Christmas soon and she was sure Charlie was staying at Hogwarts with her. Unfortunately, so was her dad. They talked idly for a while before starting their potions homework, a long essay on the use of bezoars in curing poisons and the man who thought to use the little stone etc. A thoroughly boring piece of work which they countered with their DADA homework and sent each other flying across the common room with silent spells. They made sure they placed cushions on the floor and before they knew it the bell was ringing and they were heading down to Hagrid's cabin with the seven other N.E.W.T care of magical creatures students. Both Charlie and Lexie had chosen the same courses to do at N.E.W.T level, mainly due to the fact they wanted to do similar things. Lexie knew that once she left Hogwarts she would go abroad to complete her training with Lycan and become a fully fledged member of the Order of Dragons. She would need her basics in everything and had chosen a wide range of subjects for N.E.W.T's because she didn't know what she would really need to be part of the order. Charlie knew he wanted to work with dragons or failing that with some other magical creatures so he had picked things that would help him with them. They had also done a deal, whereby Charlie had picked one their courses and Lexie had agreed to do it and Lexie had picked a course and Charlie had agreed to do it. Charlie had picked care of magical creatures as Lexie knew he would which suited her just fine as she would probably be needing it. She had picked Herbology, something Charlie wasn't too keen on but he agreed to it anyway, Lexie had a feeling she might need to know what she was surrounded with in later life. As a result, both of them had ended up with:

Care of Magical Creatures,

Herbology,

Transfiguration,

Potions,

Defense Against the Dark Arts and

Ancient Runes.

Lexie and Charlie joined the rest of the class, which was located a little closer to the edge of the forbidden forest than to Hagrid's cabin. Professor Kettleburn was already speaking when they arrived and waving around his – handless – left arm.

"... A good question Miss Norton, when facing a werewolf it is better to stand your ground, if you run it will follow no matter where you go because you are it's prey. Either way it would be best to avoid the situation all together because you'll probably end up dead." He paused to take a breath and four hands shot into the air with questions about werewolves, "However interesting the subject of werewolves is, they are not considered magical creatures due to the amount of human within them, your questions would be best put to your Defense Against the Dark arts teacher. Now, I realise we have been looking in more detail at the behaviour of unicorns and their young, however Professor McGonagall has told me it would be unwise to enter the forest at present times because of the mysterious creature lurking within, so we will be proceeding to the black lake to see if we can lure either the giant squid or some merpeople to the surface as our next topic will be underwater creatures. If you will all follow me." The class followed Professor Kettleburn to the edge of the lake where he told them about the habits of the giant squid that had been recorded by the N.E.W.T class from the year before. They succeeded in baiting the squid to the top of the water where they kept it for the hour and a half long lesson in which they all drew it in detail, keeping it at the surface by feeding it bits of bread some house elves had brought from the kitchen. When they were done, the rest of the class packed up and left but Charlie caught hold of Lexie's hand and pulled her back down onto the grass, together they watched the squid sink back underneath the water and disappear from view, only once the bubbles from it's mouth could not be seen anymore did Charlie speak.

"What's wrong?" He asked and she silently cursed herself, she should have known he would sense something was wrong, he could read her like a book. Whilst he waited for her answer he tucked a loose curl back behind her ear and put his arm around her.

"I've been keeping a secret from you." She whispered guiltily, looking down at their hands, locked together so solidly.

"Oh? Have you?" She looked up at his face, he didn't seem angry.

"You're not angry with me?"

"No, I'm a little upset that you thought you couldn't tell me something but if you kept it a secret you must have had your reasons."

"Exactly! You see it's not just my secret, it's his too." She was so relieved that she didn't think about what her words might mean to Charlie. He had frozen in place an expression of shock and hurt on his face. "Charlie! What's the matter with you?"

"You're cheating on me?" His voice was almost gone but she understood as clear as day.

"NO! Why would you think that?!"

"You said 'his secret too'"

"Yes but I didn't mean... oh you'll see what I mean tomorrow morning."

"Tomorrow morning?"

"Yup, It's kind of hard to explain so I was thinking I'd just show you."

Charlie's eyes unclouded slightly and he gaped slightly.

"You're not … I mean you can't be … Pregnant?"

"NO! Why do people keep asking me that?" She was almost crying with laughter.

"You give cryptic clues that could lead to more than one eventuality." Charlie stated matter-of-factly.

"Anyway, how would I be pregnant without cheating on you?"

"I don't know!" Charlie's face reddened.

"Seriously, you don't know?"

"Oh be quiet!"

"When a man and a lady love each other very much -" She began in a slow voice but Charlie cut her off by stuffing her scarf in her mouth and almost stopped her from being heard, " I hout oo in't oh" She said from behind the scarf.

"I'm sorry could you say that in English?" He said removing the scarf from her mouth, he had almost turned back to his natural colour by this time.

"I said 'I thought you didn't know,' I was just trying to help."

"Well, thank you very much!" He said sarcastically pushing her over in the sandy dirt around the edge of the lake.

"Come on," she said getting up and brushing the dirt out of her hair hair, "I'm hungry, I didn't get any lunch remember?"

"I saved you a roll!"

"And it was lovely but now I'm starving." To this Charlie didn't reply and Lexie knew he was letting have this little victory. She grabbed his hand as they walked back up to the castle together and Lexie felt happier than she had in a while.

_You're not having a child, are you little one?_ Lycan laughed in her head.

_And you can keep your mouth shut! _She replied, too happy to really tell him off, her light mood seemed to have rubbed off on him and for once she was looking forward to trudging down the invisible path to the clearing in the forest because she would have Charlie next to her and there would be no more lies.

**A/N:** Ok, we're getting to some serious stuff now, next chapter is mind blowing! And I'm not just saying that, it gives me shivers or that could be because it's -2000000 degrees in our house. That and Grace is currently playing the music box tune from Phantom.


	11. Things That Begin To Go Wrong

******A/N:  
><strong>Two chapter is one day, that makes three this week! This chapter is dedicate to Cait who dared me to write two more before we went back to school this is number three and number four is on the way. This one was so long that instead of mushing it all here, I've split it into two and haven't quite finished the other half so stick that in your pipe and smoke it! Tehe my grandad used that expression.

**Things That Begin To Go Wrong**

Charlie awoke early the next morning and waited almost patiently for Lexie to get up and get ready. Every time one of the other girls from her dormitory came down he peppered her with questions along the lines of '… is Lexie awake?' or '...how long do you think she'll be?' When she finally came down the stairs from the girl's dormitories she looked stunning, her hair was up in a high pony-tail and it seemed curlier than ever. Charlie took a minute to appreciate her beauty before bombarding her with questions.

"How long does it take? Are you aware you've been awake for nearly half an hour?" He said, not angrily but maybe a little bit exasperated.

"Contrary to popular belief we girls do not wake up looking like natural goddesses, it takes a little effort and a lot of patience."

"Well, you look beautiful but was it really necessary?"

"Be thankful you're not waiting for Daisy Keats, she was up before me and she's only just finished doing her make-up, she still has to do her hair and get dressed."

"Well yeah but you can see why with her."

"What ever do you mean, my dear?" Lexie said with a giggle as she looped her arm through his and they exited the common room through the portrait hole.

"Well, she's not the prettiest duck on the pond is she now?"

"Would you, by chance be calling her an ugly duckling?"

"Thank the lord you catch on fast, I beginning to think I was being nasty to the poor girl."

"But ugly ducklings turn into beautiful swans"

"Not always, if that girl was going to do any changing, it would have happened by now. Anyway you're already a swan, you always have been." He kissed her on the cheek.

"We are feeling quite the gentleman this morning aren't we?"

"Well, one must act at ones best when one finds out a secret kept so tightly from ones ears." Lexie laughed and rolled her eyes.

"Well, one might want to save their pleasantness for when one finds out the secret. It is unwise for one to try and second-guess secrets for one does not know whether one will like it yet."

"Wise words in deed my dear." Charlie said as they entered the great hall for breakfast. They did not take long to eat their breakfast because they were both very excited about their day. It being a Saturday they could spend as long as they wanted revelling in their secret, when at last they both knew it. Charlie followed Lexie out of the entrance and down the stone steps, as though they were heading to see Hagrid. Lexie's plan was to circle around the other side of the forest so no one would see them going into the forest and think to follow them. Charlie grew suspicious as they came closer to Hagrid's cabin but made no comment until they were nearly at the door.

"Are we paying a visit to Hagrid first?" He asked confused.

"No, we're going into the forest and I didn't want anyone to see us so we're going around the back."

"We can't go into the forest there's something loose in there remember?"

"Yes, and I know what it is, it's my secret Charlie, trust me. Nothing in there will hurt us, they centaurs won't even bother us."

"You're sure?" When she nodded he grabbed her hand and looked at her,

"Alright then, lead the way."

Lexie led them through the thickest part of the forest to the very heart of it. It took longer than it would usually have taken her due to a combination of the different route, the less familiar way and Charlie trying too keep up with her. They arrived just before midday and were both out of breath and sweaty beyond belief but they had made it. In the middle of the clearing was the huge white stone, unmoving and with no obvious beginning or end, it seemed to taper away at one end but it was so bright to look at when the sun shone on it's crystalline surface that Charlie didn't look at it for long. He returned his gaze to Lexie and raised an eyebrow.

"You brought me to the middle of the forbidden forest to see a shiny white rock?"

"No I didn't actually, give it a minute." When a minute passed and nothing happened Lexie sighed and went up to the rock, she kicked it gently at first and then harder, shouting with her mind. "He's not going to make this easy."

"Who isn't?"

"You'll see"

"Did you really bring me out here to meet someone or did you bring me out here to seduce me, where no one could find us?" He said in his most teasing voice, wrapping his arms around Lexie.

"Eew, get off me, you're all sweaty!" She said pushing his arms half-heartedly.

"I thought sweat was attractive"

"Eew no! It's just 'sgusting!" Charlie tightened his arms around her and she battered them off with light punches.

_ENOUGH! _

The rock began to stir, _put her down! _

A head appeared from one end and a powerful tail swept the floor at the other.

_When my bond-mate wishes to be let go, you should do so! _

Wings unfurled and the whole thing stretched, like a cat.

_Do not make such advances without her permission!_

A creature bigger than two houses blocked all light from the clearing and roared.

"Enough yourself!" Lexie shouted at the beast, _you knew I was bringing him, stop acting like a child._

_I am not acting like a child I am acting like a dragon._

_Well behave! And introduce yourself._

Charlie was staring up at the dragon with adoration in his eyes, he made a wide circle around the dragon and spoke of how his scales shone and he was the finest dragon Charlie had ever seen. Lexie let him speak, she knew that the compliments would help Lycan warm up to him, if there was anything dragons loved it was compliments.

_Welcome, friend of my bond-mate, I am Lycan._

"He talks!" Charlie exclaimed.

"Sometimes I can't get him to shut-up."

"You have a dragon?!"

"NO! He's not my pet, he's bonded to me."

"I've read about bonded dragons I've never met one before." He turned back to Lycan and addressed him, "it is my pleasure to meet you Lycan, my name is Charlie Weasley."

_Well met human_

"Amazing, this is amazing. When you said secret, I never thought … how?! This just proves that you're the best person I know, there is no other person in the world more deserving of a bonded dragon!" Charlie was beside himself and she knew why. Charlie had always wanted to work with dragons but it was a rare job and one you had to travel for. He had never thought he would meet a dragon while still in school and he had never even dreamed he would meet a bonded dragon in his entire life.

"How do you feel about flying?"

"What?!"

"It's not so different from being on a broom."

"Fly … on Lycan?!"

"Yup, come on, I'll show you." She pulled the saddle out from it's place between the two trees and with Charlie's help fastened it securely to Lycan's back. Once it was in place Lexie jumped on to Lycan's foreleg and from there pulled herself up into the saddle, it was a practised move which made Charlie's effort to copy her look even more clumsy. Once he was high enough for her to reach she helped to pull him up and he slipped into the saddle behind her. They sat between the first two spikes, it was a bit close but still comfortable and she preferred it to him sitting behind the middle spike on Lycan's neck.

"Ready?" She called back to Charlie and when he put his arms around her to hold on she gave Lycan the signal and he launched into the air. He ascended quickly to avoid being spotted and soon they were high enough in the winter clouds to look like a hawk from anyone looking up.

They flew with Lycan for a few hours and just generally talked about dragons. Lexie had a feeling of weightlessness, even after they had landed. She had told Charlie, he knew! He wasn't angry he was overjoyed when they walked back up to castle, hand in had there was a new gleam in his eyes, he looked at her with even more love and she almost laughed, of course she loved him. It was Charlie she had always loved him and she always would.

"So where have you two been hiding all day?" Chris asked, wiggling his eyebrows at them and they looked at each other with knowing smiles.

"We've been down at Hagrid's, helping him and doing some care of magical creatures homework by the lake." Lexie lied smoothly and Charlie nodded along with her, putting another forkful of food in his already stuffed mouth.

"All day? I mean you got up pretty early." Said Thorne

"Shut-up," Charlie said swallowing and Thorne did as he was told with a smile. Chris apparently wasn't going to let it go so easily, he questioned them all through dinner and only stopped when they had gone back up to the common room and an owl tapped at one of the windows. It was Errol, the Weasley family owl, carrying a piece of parchment that had been battered around so much in the winter wind that it was hard to read on many places. Charlie took the letter and Lexie took Errol over to rug in front of the fire so he could warm up. He nipped her finger affectionately and sat in front of the flames for a few minutes before returning to Lexie's knee. She was sat on the chair arm of Charlie's chair.

"Do you want to spend Christmas with us?" Charlie asked Lexie who looked shocked, though she had stayed at the Burrow through the summer holidays, she had never been over for Christmas, she had always spent Christmas at Hogwarts, preferring the cheer and having the castle almost to herself over the pathetic muggle decorations her father put up. She'd had it all sorted out, her sister was staying at her school for Christmas and her and her dad were staying at Hogwarts. She thought about it for a minute and then decided it would be much fairer to her sister if she went to the Weasley's for Christmas, then neither of them got their dad. So she turned to Charlie and nodded. By the end of the next week they were both packed and heading to Kings cross station on the Hogwarts express.

**A/N:** Well, get reviewing!


	12. Christmassing With The Weasleys

******A/N:  
><strong>Wow, another chapter that's three on two days! Are you proud of me? Let us see, this chapter can be dedicated to all of the people in the world who are writing their own books/fanfictions right now! Keep on writing you amazing people. You're an inspiration to us all. Enjoy and revel in the tension as things begin to get shifty!

**Christmassing With The Weasleys**

"Lexie, let me look at you!" Mrs Weasley called from in front of the burrow as Lexie and Charlie walked up the path to the front door, "My goodness, as pretty as ever I see, well Charlie has always had good taste. How are you dear?"

"I'm good thank you Mrs Weasley." Lexie smiled and looked over at Charlie who had an almost annoyed expression on his face.

"Yes mum, school was good, we've done loads of revision but it's going to be worth it. We've even got homework for the holidays. I'm fine too you know, didn't get dragged into the lake by the squid which we're now studying in care of magical creatures, not that you'd care because all you've done for the last three minutes is fuss over Lexie!"

"Oh, Charlie, what are you wittering on about?" Mrs Weasley said, now pulling Lexie by the arm into the kitchen.

"Nothing mum." Charlie said and carried the two trunks into the kitchen after them, he had barely put the trunks down when there was shout and a nine year old girl with red hair came running from the stairs and tackled her brother."Ouch! Ginny! Get off me!" Charlie shouted, batting her away. For a moment she looked upset but then he grinned at her, opening his arms, "alright, I'm ready now." This time when Ginny jumped at him, he caught her.

"Aren't you a bit big to be picked up?" He asked her as he did just that

"Not when it's you, I bet you'll be able to pick me up when the same age as Auntie Muriel!"

"I wouldn't bet on it, I'll be stooped old man then, do you know how old Auntie Muriel is?"

"Yeah, she almost 300!"

"No Ginny, she's 99!"

"Oh, you'll definitely be able to pick me up then!"

"I'll be 107!"

"Oh well! You'll still be really strong. Hi Lexie" she said turning her brown eyes on Lexie, who was stood or rather leant against the worktop in the kitchen.

"Hey squirt." She raised a hand.

"Right, Lexie you're staying in Charlie's room, Charlie you're in with Bill, NO arguments!" Mrs Weasley said at the look on Lexie's face. Lexie spoke anyway.

"Really, I'll sleep on the sofa, you don't have to chuck Charlie out of his bedroom!"

"No you won't!" Mrs Weasley said at the same time as Charlie said

"It's fine, I've shared with Bill before." For a moment no one knew what anyone else had said and everything was quiet and then Ginny piped up.

"She can share with me!"

"That's very kind Ginny but she's staying in Charlie's room, everything is arranged!" Mrs Weasley said firmly.

"There's no way I'm going to get out of this, is there?" Lexie asked them.

"No!" Ginny, Charlie and Mrs Weasley together. Lexie sighed and took her trunk up the first flight of the stairs, she then leant over the banister and called down.

"Next flight up, third door on the right?"

"Yeah, wait for me!" Charlie shouted up and grabbed his trunk in one hand and shooed Errol away with the other.

The next day, the whole Weasley family gathered for breakfast and Lexie took the time to drink in the atmosphere. In her house breakfast was quiet, with just her sister, her father and her. In the Weasley house everything was loud, there was always someone to talk to and always something to laugh about. Whether it was Percy who was the constant joke around his lesser academic siblings or the twins: Fred and George who could pull off any prank they thought of. Lexie liked this feeling.

"We missed you over the summer Lexie" said Mr Weasley from the head of the table.

"I know, we went away as a family, with dad coming to Hogwarts and Poppy going to a boarding school for a year before Hogwarts. Dad thought it would be a nice thing to go on holiday together one last time." Lexie called back up the table.

"Oh, where did you go?" Said Bill, joining in the conversation.

"A little island near Italy, I'm not sure what it's called, my dad knows the man who owns the island."

"Very nice."

"Yeah, it was lovely." With that all conversation returned to breakfast. Staying with the Weasleys was one of the best things about being friends with Charlie. _That and Charlie himself_. Lexie thought to herself as she left the table. The Weasley's house was decorated with various bits of holly and the odd sprig of mistletoe as well as the spindly Christmas tree which was packed with an assortment of baubles, wizarding Christmas crackers and other such items. The whole thing was topped off with a Cornish pixie, in a tiny tutu and stunned. When Lexie saw it, it took her a moment to realise what it was and when she did, she couldn't stop laughing, she beckoned Charlie over.

"Why is there a pixie sat on your Christmas tree?" She stage whispered.

"Because we've never had an angel and we catch what we can in the garden and stun it. This was Bill's handiwork, we had a Bowtruckle last year."

"Well, I suppose that makes sense!" She laughed.

Christmas day came and went with presents and food and laughter and Lexie barely spared a thought for her father and her sister, she did however make time to hike out to the next hill, where Lycan was hiding. With Charlie of course. They wished him a happy Christmas and took him some leftover turkey, even though it wasn't a mouthful for him and then they made their way back. Everyone clapped when they were pushed under the mistletoe and Charlie – who was slightly drunk – kissed Lexie for a little too long and Mr Weasley had to clear his throat to get their attention.

Altogether, Lexie reflected as she laid in bed on the night of the 27th of December, it was one of the best Christmas' she had ever had. She was thinking about what would happen in the rest of the holidays – they were due to go back to Hogwarts on January 2nd – when a flash of blue light took her by surprise and she shot out of bed.

She was face to face with a monster of some kind, it was a medium size and looked almost like a dragon, but it was distorted, it was thin and lanky, it had blank eyes that had no pupils and looked as though they were full of hate. All of it's spikes were either broken or coated in a strange substance which looked too much like dried blood. It had tears all along it's body where flesh and quite often bone shone through in the pearly light. She almost screamed until she realised it was a patronus. _Who would have a patronus like that?_ She thought as she aimed to slow down her heart/ It wasn't working, for some reason this thing frightened her. She knew she should get Charlie or contact Lycan – who would have felt her fear through their bond – but she stayed rooted in one place and stared at the creature. It waited until she was paying all of her attention to it and it opened it's mouth and spoke. The voice which came out was nothing like she had ever heard before, it was sickly and sly. The type of voice which makes you shiver, she hated this voice and she didn't even know who it belonged to. Even worse, was the message it brought.

You have told secrets kept for ages passed. We will not stop until you are punished. See your father suffer, only you can swap places with him.

It showed one last horrible image of her father being dragged off, over a rough stone floor. His face was bloodied and one of his arms looked broken but it was the expression on his face that was the worst. He looked scared. The patronus faded, leaving only the horrible imprint of the image in Lexie's head. She stood for a long time trying to figure out what to do but in her heart she knew there was only one other thing she could do, she collected some of her things and transported them from the room, to the saddlebags, near where Lycan was waiting for her. She dressed at top speed and looked at the time 01:49 am. She had plenty of time before the rest of the house got up. But still, a moment wasted here was one lost on her father. She was creeping to the front door when she heard footsteps behind her. She whirled around and saw a shadow moving from the third floor, climbing down the stairs to the second floor and entering the room she had just left. She cursed to herself and hid as the shadow resumed climbing down the stairs, rubbing it's eyes all the while. It was Charlie, she closed her eyes, if she could just wait long enough for hi to go back upstairs, she could get away without him noticing. Her eyes fell upon the piece of folded up paper on the kitchen table at the same time as Charlie entered the kitchen and saw it. She didn't have time to get up and get the piece of paper because he had picked it up and began to read. She watched his face as he read the few measly lines that she had spared for an explanation. She had stuck as close to the truth as possible without giving anything away. The note read:

Charlie,

I'm sorry I had to leave but I got an urgent call through the night, from my dad, I think he's in trouble. Please don't worry about me, I'll be fine. Would you tell the rest of your family my dad asked me to go back up to Hogwarts a few days early to celebrate Christmas with him. I know I shouldn't ask you to lie but I can't think of anything else to do.

I love you.

Lexie

Charlie's face cleared as he read the note and something came over it, pain, hurt, she couldn't tell. All she knew was that Charlie was putting on a pair of shoes and grabbing a coat as he headed out of the front door. The not was still in his hand. For a minute Lexie panicked, she didn't know what to do, she couldn't have Charlie walking around looking for her in the middle of the night when she hadn't even left yet. She darted out of the door after him, luckily for her, he didn't know where he was going and she did. She ran as fast as she could to the place where Lycan was waiting for her and jumped straight on his back. They flew for nearly fifteen minutes before Charlie came into view, he was stumbling around in the hills, a long way away from the Burrow. Lycan swooped down and picked Charlie up in his claws and flew them back to the clearing.

"What are you doing?!" They asked at the same time and Charlie motioned for her to answer first.

"I have to find my dad! No what are you doing?!" She replied in a low hiss.

"Finding you, it's the middle of the night, you can't go off on your own on some craze mission to save your dad. You don't even know where he is!"

"I have my suspicions."

"Wait until morning, we'll get the ministry to help!"

"NO! This is dragon business!" She told him about the patronus and the image of her dad. "I recognize that place, it's the court of dragons, it's the place I stayed last summer. For some reason the dragons are holding my dad there and it's something to do with me!"

"You can't go alone!"

"I'm not! Lycan will be with me!"

"That's not good enough!" He shouted, Lycan roared.

_Watch you mouth _human_, _Lycan spat and growled at Charlie, _I would never let anything happen to her and I can protect her better than you can!_

For a few minutes, the three of them stood in silence, waiting for one of the other's to speak first, it was Lexie who broke the towering silence.

"Charlie …" She began but her voice faded before she could get any more words out.

"What." He replied angrily.

"You … well, I suppose … If you wanted to … I mean if it would make you feel better-"

"JUST TELL ME!" He shouted.

"Come with us."

**A/N: **Have you noticed how no one reviews anymore? I feel terribly lonely, maybe just a few of you could write me review ... you never know, it might make me write faster - even though at the moment that is not possible. It could also lead to me giving spoilers to wet you appetite even more. Sigh, so very lonely :(


	13. A Decision To Make

******A/N:** This is the last chapter I can post before we go back to school, sad I know but I only have so much freedom, from now on I'll try to get chapter's out as quickly as I can but no promises. This chapter is dedicated to Alice B, Dainton and Annabel who are awesome and I saw them yesterday and they inspired me with their talk of phantom of the opera and all of our emotional feels, I'll see at school tomorrow you three. I love all of my reader but these three are special to me. xxx

**A Decision To Make**

"What?!" Charlie breathed.

"Come with us, please?" Lexie said, her own voice almost as quiet as Charlie's,

"I … come with? … How?" Charlie replied.

"Lycan is big enough to carry us both." She said a little louder, allowing a small hint of hopefulness into her strained voice.

"I, I don't know what to say." He sounded so small and fragile. It was something she had never attributed to Charlie but there it was in front of her.

"Please, please Charlie, say you'll come!" Lexie begged him, starting to haul the saddle onto Lycan's back. Charlie moved forwards to help her, almost sub-consciously, and began tieing knots in the thick leather. For a few moments they worked in silence, occasionally asking the other's help as they worked over Lycan's scales. In the moonlight, Lycan's scales reminded Charlie of moonstones, they reflected the light but gave it a thicker, cloudier texture, almost like fog waiting to part. When their task was done they stood back to admire their handiwork. Lexie turned around and caught hold of one of Charlie's hands.

"Come with us." She said again, knowing, even before he answered, what he was going to say.

"I can't." He choked, silent tears welled in his eyes, "I can't come with you." With the last statement he turned and began to walk back to the Burrow. Lexie thought about taking him back but decided he needed the time to himself before he could face his family. Then she had another thought; she hated herself for it.

"Charlie!" She called after him and caught up with him, he looked pained but not nearly as much as she felt.

"I'm so sorry, Charlie I love you, I really do," she held his face in her hands as she whispered the words, "I'm so sorry." She kissed him once, on the cheek and stepped back, pointed her wand at him and whispered:

"_Obliviate."_

For a second she dared to believe it wouldn't work, but then Charlie's face went blank and he stared passed her into the night. She felt the memories leave him, memories of flying together, of the whole Christmas together but she felt more than that too. She felt her spell push itself outwards from Charlie and spread through the Burrow and through Hogwarts, she looked up at Lycan and just for one minute allowed herself to blame him. She couldn't do it though, she loved him too much and she knew she was entirely to blame.

_What have you done?_ She didn't ask him angrily, it was a simple question but she would never fully understand the answer.

_He was not the only one who needed to forget. Whilst you are gone, no one will remember you. When you return, so will their memories of you, it will be like you never left._ She tried to nod but tears still spilled over her eyes. _It was necessary. _Lycan whispered in her mind.

_I know. _She replied, _that doesn't make it any easier though._

_Come along, little one, it would not be wise to tarry where unpleasant memories are fresh, nor when someone you love could be in such danger. _

_I know._ She thought again and she climber up into the saddle and gripped the spike in front of her as Lycan took off, loosing a roar filled with grief and love. They flew through the night and into the next day, contrary to popular belief, flying by dragon is not as quick as it should have been. When they arrived at the court of the dragons it was not as Lexie remembered it, only the floor was the same. It still depicted the history of the court of dragons, set in marble so it would never change or be ravaged by time. So one day the whole world would know what he court had done. The rest of the court was practically in ruins, the walls were crumbling and looked as though they had been in a great battle. Though Lexie knew something so terrible could never happen there without the rest of the world knowing, the thought that someone could do this. She took a breath and slipped down from Lycan's back, the whole court felt wrong, it was different from the place she had been through the summer. She remembered the way the people had run through the halls and shouted greetings as they went. The people would buzz with excitement and they halls would glow with reflections of the scales from the dragons of every colour. It had crumbled, Lexie felt as though she was looking at it through a window into the future, this is how it should look in two hundred years! Not six months after she had last been there. The walls were almost gone but the floor was still intact, Lexie found herself wondering why anyone who wanted to destroy the order would leave their most precious object untouched. And then she found herself noticing a small staircase that was new, it had been built recently. Maybe the floor was still intact because there was something under it, maybe it wasn't a floor at all anymore, it was a ceiling.

Lexie climbed down the stairs with caution, they were too small for Lycan to fit down and as far as she knew, there was not other way down underground, not having Lycan with her with her made feel much more vulnerable, it made her almost easy prey. She did not like how it was looking, there was no one around and to her that meant that there wasn't supposed to be anyone about. The whole place felt wrong, Lycan could sense it too, he stayed above, hovering at a certain height above the only weak spot in the marble floor. The very centre of it. It was a circle of marble with nothing in it, meant to symbolize the circle of life and all things living. When it was carved, the artist had carved a little too deeply and this circle went almost all of the way through the thick slab of stone. Lycan was positive that if he flew at it with enough force, his claws would break the circle upon hitting it. He could be with her in a minute if she needed him, of course a minute is a long time when you're fighting. Lexie had no light to go by and she hated going in blind, she felt like the stupid teenage girl in the horror film, the one you tell not to go down and she could avoid all of the trouble. But she had to go down; she felt as though she were walking right into a trap. And she was.

As soon as she reached the bottom of the stairs, someone grabbed her from behind and pushed her to the floor, she wasn't going down easily though, she kicked his legs out from under him and moved to one side, the only reason she went down at all was because he grabbed her ankle and pulled her down.

"Who are you?!" He gasped.

"My name, is Alexia Davenport! I'm part of the order of dragons!" Lexie said, attempting to push herself upwards into at least, a more flattering, sitting position. But as soon as she was up, he pushed her back down again.

"What are you doing here?" He growled at her.

"Saving my father!" At her words his mouth set into a small 'o' shape. "Why, what do you know about it? Do you know where he is?!"

"Wow, the way they talked about you, I thought you were smarter than that."

"Smarter than what?"

"He's not here! He never has been! They tricked you!"

"But, the image … the patronus! It was _there. _I _saw_ it!"

"You mean this?!" He said, waving his hand in one direction and the same patronus appeared in the air in front of Lexie's eyes.

"YOU?"

"Not just me, we call all make it appear, it's a spell!"

"It was midnight! All I saw was this horrible imitation of a dragon! It took me ten minutes to figure out it was a patronus!"

"Look, I don't care, you just need to leave."

"Why, what do they want with me?"

"They want to punish you."

"WHY?"

"You told an outsider what you were."

"So, I had no choice! Why do we have to live in secret? We need to be out in the open, helping people!"

"We, who is we? I'm not one of you! They just keep me here to do their dirty work!"

"Why don't you leave?"

"I can't, I'm locked to this place."  
>"What do you mean?"<p>

"I'm not real, I'm just a spell."  
>"But, you're solid, you knocked me to the floor!"<p>

"They made me a body, out of stone and enchanted it to make it seem real."

"No, this can't be happening, I haven't done anything wrong!" Lexie cried.

"You need to go before they come back." He, it, whispered.

"What's your name?"

"They never gave me one." He said pushing her back up the stair and out into the brilliant sunshine.

_RUN!_ Lycan shouted in her head, _They're back! _But before Lexie had a chance to run, a pair of claws picked her off the ground and threw her up into the air. She really hoped it was Lycan, she didn't want to die at the claws of another dragon. Thank full – and rather painfully – she landed on Lycan's back a second later and collected her wits. He was flying faster than he had ever flown before, struggling to keep out of the reach of the other, bigger, dragons. There were five of them and they all had bond-mates on their backs.

_We're never going to make it!_ Lexie thought desperately to Lycan.

_Do you want to turn and fight?_ Came the laboured reply.

_No, I want to go back._

_WHAT?_

_I can't just leave him here, they'll kill him for letting us go!_

_In case you haven't noticed we're not gone yet!_

_His life is at stake and we've got not hope of getting away, it could be helpful to have a third person with us if we need to fight!_

_He's made of stone!_

_I don't care! If you don't take me back I'll jump and go on my own! _With a grunt he wheeled around, clearly annoyed at her but turning seemed to shock the members of the order – for Lexie was sure that was who they were – they weren't expecting such a daring move and before they could react Lycan was spiralling towards the ground at such a speed that he judged the distance ever so slightly wrongly, instead of coming to a smooth halt as he hit the ground, his claws dug into the marble and made an horrifying noise as he slid across the polished surface. Lexie jumped down as quickly and smoothly as she could but still hit the floor a little wobbly, she recovered quickly and looked up and saw five multi-coloured missiles diving towards Lycan.

_Go! _He roared, _I can hold them off for a couple of minutes, they won't realise what you're doing! Get him back here as quickly as you can._

Lexie didn't argue, she hit the stairs at a run and slipped down the first six before regaining her footing. She found him at the bottom of the stairs, sat looking into the darkness, her hand closed around his stone arm and she pulled him up.

"It's you lucky day, I decided to come back for you." She said breathlessly,

"You came back for me?"

"Yes so get your butt off the floor and move!"

"How are we getting out of here?"

"I have a dragon waiting for us and he's fighting off five of our old friends." She said with a grimace. The man made of stone followed her up the stairs and they crept behind one of the crumbling walls. Four of the five dragons were backing Lycan into the corner where they were waiting but the fifth, a large, swamp green monster was looking around. On it's back was a large, balding man, thickly built with sly brown eyes. The very man who had presented the newly hatched Lycan to her, his name was Howick, no one ever called him by his first name, the only thing her ever got called was Howick, he was supposed to be the leader of the order. And he had realised she wasn't there. He was scanning the area opposite them, looking for her and probably thinking she was waiting to attack from behind. She pulled the stone man's arm and motioned to where Howick was watching.

"We have to go now" she mouthed to him, "before old ugly looks this way." He nodded and set off in front of her whilst she ran to Lycan's back and climbed up into the saddle, she called to Lycan with her mind.

_You'll have to pick him up in your claws, he's too heavy to go in the saddle._ Even as she thought it, Lycan's legs were powering him off the ground and he picked up the stone man in his grip. He wobbled dangerously before his powerful wings carried them upwards. The other dragons were on them in a second but Lycan was already quite high and had the advantage of being a level above the rest of them. They were clawing at his legs and pulling him down. The stone man was gesturing to Lexie, wild gestures that she understood too late. She didn't have time to warn him, he was pulling free of Lycan's grip … and Lycan was letting him go.

_NO_ she screamed in his head but it was too late, the stone man fell to the ground and hit the marble with a bone shattering crunch. The four dragons jumped after, crushing piece after piece of him and all she could see was his smiling face looking up at her. The horror of his death was fresh in her mind as Lycan attempted to fly higher and get away from the hell below. The fifth dragon was following … was catching up … was in front of them and a rippling wall of fire was encasing them as they fell to the floor once more. It was like a dream, a nightmare, she never remembered hitting the floor just the fire that cut her off from every other feeling alive, she could feel Lycan's pain through their bond and it made it all the more unbearable.

_I'm dying_, she thought to Lycan, and it was a blessed relief.

**A/N:** Please review you amazing people. I'll write again asap and GBYH to you all - that means Great Big Llama Hats! Because Llamas need hats too!


	14. Needle In A Haystack

**Needle In A Haystack**

Charlie was walking, almost blindly, through the corridors of Hogwarts. He was remembering … something but he couldn't quite think. He shook his head, trying to clear it but there was something bigger, something solid that he couldn't quite get rid of.. It was like he could remember something that had been huge in his life, something monumental but he only ever got that close to the answer, then his thoughts were pushed sharply away and an even bigger presence blocked his memory of the .. thing? Person? What was it!? Charlie had noticed it in other people as well, they would begin to ask him something and then they would go blank, he was sure they were going to ask him about … what ever it was. He had been able to reason that he must know more about what ever it was or be closer to who ever it was, no one seemed to ask each other, they asked him. He was talking to Chris and Thorne when he stumbled upon the answer.

"You remember our first lesson at Hogwarts?" Chris asked Charlie who hummed in reply.

"It was care of magical creatures with Professor Kettleburn, we were just sat talking but there wasn't just us, do you ever think that … that something's missing?" Whispered Chris.

"Yeah, yeah I do." Charlie began to think back to that day.

_A small Charlie sat on the grass in the shade of tree to the side of Hagrid's cabin, he was drawing one of the crows, perched on top of the giant pumpkin outside the cabin. He was waiting for the rest of his care of magical creatures class to arrive. He had set off early in the hopes of watching the other students arrive, he had met three people on the train the day before; he wanted to see if he could find some friends to stay with._

Charlie's mind whirred, that was right! He had met three people on the train, the day he arrived at Hogwarts.

THREE!

_He watched as the tall, thin, dark-haired boy arrive and be surrounded by the crows. Charlie desperately wanted to draw the crows as they circled the boys but they were shooed away when the second boy from the day before arrived. He was smaller, with blond hair cut short but shining in the sun. He had caramel coloured skin and an almost pompous aire about him. Then the teacher arrived and introduced himself as Professor Kettleburn he began to name some of the creatures they would be studying and Charlie felt his attention drift, he knew all of this already. Occupational hazard of having an older brother at the school. Then something caught his eye. A small shadow, slinking out of the trees; Charlie was about to raise the alarm, to tell someone that _something_ was coming towards them from the trees but something stopped him. A glint of gold in the sun and he looked again at the figure. It was a girl with shining golden hair and big eyes, it was the third person from the train. It was the love of his life. _And the spell was broken.

"LEXIE!" He exploded! Chris was looking at him blankly but Charlie didn't care, he knew her, he loved her and she was so real! He loved her and she loved him and the only reason she wasn't with him there was because she'd gone. He sighed, he still couldn't remember why she'd gone. There was something left, not all of the curse was gone, there was part of it that was just too strong to break through but he didn't care. He remembered her and if it was the last thing he did, he was going to find her and help her. He stood up and ran out of the common room, pushing people out of his was as he ran. He didn't stop for breath until he reached the stone gargoyle that flanked the entrance to Professor Dumbledore's office.

"Gah!" He shouted at it, "Can't you just let me in? Just this once?! It's important!"

"Mr Weasley, can I help you?" Came a calm voice form behind him.

"Professor! It's important! It's Lexie." Charlie said but he said it so fast that it came out as a garble, with one word at the end:

"Lexie."

"Who is Lexie?" Professor Dumbledore asked with a slight frown, "I am certain that there is no student here called Lexie."

"No, that's my point, she should be here but she's not!"

"No, I don't think we have ever had a student called Lexie. Not whilst I have been teaching here that is."

"YES! There was! She is wonderful, she's Professor Davenport's daughter."

"Professor Davenport only has one daughter and she isn't due to attend here for another year, now Mr Weasley I think it would be better if you went back to the Gryffindor common room and occupied yourself with other things such as the essay you owe Professor Snape." Said Professor Dumbledore, the stone gargoyle outside his office moved aside and let him through. Charlie stared in disbelief at the spot where the headmaster had stood only a minute before. He had been so sure that Dumbledore would know who she was, that Dumbledore would help him find her. No one could make Dumbledore forget, he was too great a wizard, unless it was something old. Something older than time. A powerful magic, the kind that could only belong to … No, it was gone again. Charlie hit his head and wandered through the corridors. He did not know where he was going but he knew it wasn't the common room. He had to find someone to believe him! Before he knew it, he was standing outside Professor Davenport's classroom, watching the man work. Surely he couldn't be made to forget his oldest daughter.

"Professor?" Charlie said from the doorway.

"Yes?" Replied the man,

"I was wondering,"

"What?"

"Whether you recognise the name … Alexia." Charlie said, moving further inside the classroom but not getting any closer to the man than that.

"Hmmmm, it's a very nice name. One my wife favoured if I recall correctly. But no, I don't think I know anyone with that name, why?" Charlie's heart sank, he truly didn't know his daughter.

"I thought you'd still know her." Charlie whispered.

"My boy, I don't think I have ever know a girl named Alexia, you must have me confused with someone else." He said sympathetically, "a girl you like?"

"You could say that, only no one knows her," Charlie muttered more to himself: "Not anymore at least."

"I can sympathise with that, my wife Lucy was a muggle. I came back to Hogwarts for my seventh year thoroughly in love with her and no one believed me. They thought I was making her up to impress them. Well they certainly got a shock when I sent out wedding invitations a year later."

"You got married when you were eighteen?" Charlie said looking up, he began to think, Lexie was seventeen and her dad had just turned thirty six.

"Yes, it was a bit of a shotgun wedding, you see when I got home from Hogwarts there was a little present waiting for me at home. A baby girl, pretty little thing, just days old when I got back. She was the spitting image of Lucy, too." The Professor's eyes turned sad, "she died not two days later."

Charlie couldn't believe his ears.

"What was her name?"

"Anne Marie," the professor said and smiled at Charlie, "Sorry, I must be boring you. Something wrong?" Charlie was frowning. Her name couldn't have been Anne Marie, it was Lexie. It had to be, that was around the time she had been born.

"Nothing, what was your wife like?"

"Lucy, she was beautiful, she had long, curly, golden hair and such deep blue eyes."

"You said the baby looked like her."

"She did, even at such a young age she had thick gold curls and blue eyes."

Charlie's frown deepened, it had to be Lexie, there was no way it cold be anyone else. Then something clicked in Charlie's mind. This girl would be nearing her nineteenth birthday but Lexie was seventeen still. She'd had an older sister.

"You have another daughter don't you?"

"Yes, Poppy, she's ten though. I'm not sure why we waited so long to have another baby but I wouldn't swap her for the world. She's at boarding school." Professor Davenport smiled. His daughter was his pride and joy.

"Does she know about Anne Marie?"

"No. We were going to tell the girls when they were old enough to understand, but then Lucy died and I couldn't bring myself to." Charlie was gaping at the old man, "Cowardly isn't it?"

"That's not what I'm staring at. You said 'girls'. Plural, more than one girl." The Professor's eyes widened and he began to chuckle before clutching is head.

"Professor?" Charlie said; the man sat upright and looked at Charlie before speaking.

"What was that name again?"

"Alexia." They said at the same time.

"Oh, my daughter, how could I forget her?"

"Old magic, more powerful than any other magic, but I can't remember what magic!" Charlie hit his head again in frustration.

"Where is she?"

"I don't know but I'm going to find her."

"NO! You can't, you have no idea where she is!" Professor Davenport grabbed Charlie's arm to stop him.

"I have to do something!"

"No, you don't. She's strong, she'll be back before we know it."

"If she's not back by the end of next week I'm going to find her!"

"Fine! But no sooner!" Charlie gave one sharp nod and left the teacher to his thinking.

Three weeks went by with no word from Lexie but Professor Davenport managed to keep Charlie from leaving and doing something dangerous. Charlie had no idea where Lexie was but it wasn't going to stop him from trying to find her. However, the Professor had a few ideas where she might be. Finally, one night Charlie packed a bag and snuck out of Hogwarts – through a secret passage he had found in his third year. The passage led through to the cellar of Honeyduke's sweet shop in Hogsmede. From there it was simple for him to apparate back to the burrow and leave a not for his parents, after all he did not want them to worry when they got an owl from Professor Dumbledore, saying that he had run away from school. He knew no one would miss him until the morning, when he wasn't in his bed. By then, he planned to be far away and searching.

As soon as Professor Davenport found out that Charlie had gone missing, he packed a bag and handed in his resignation to Dumbledore. Telling the old wizard that something must be done to find the boy and also his oldest daughter who had gone missing around Christmas time. He went home and began to look through all of his old notes. Notes on something he hadn't thought about in a while. And there it was, a letter to him but for one Alexia Davenport, concerning her initiation to the Order of the Dragons. The return address: Isle Draig. He began to turn away but stopped, he crumpled the letter and threw it into the fire as he walked past.


	15. What Would You Do For Love?

**Chapter thirteen - What would you do for love?**

Lexie looked up into the ceiling of her cell. She could only tell it was the ceiling because she was curled up on the floor like she had been for the past two weeks. They kept her drugged up most of the time, she was too dangerous to be allowed consciousness. As long as she was drugged up, the dragon was also drugged up. Both of them too sleepy to be a worry to the order. However, there were rare hours when no one bothered to check on her or to make sure she was out cold, times when her thoughts became almost clear. She had learnt a lot in those hours, about their plans and about what had happened to the order in the first place.

Howick had been on the council of elders – a lower position than he had liked – and had protested when the order wanted to initiate four new members. One of them being Lexie. He had striven to make sure she would never be part of the order. At first he had just tried to delay the initiation but the Cloven Rider (the head of the order) had explained that the new eggs were smaller, the dragons weaker and less likely to be bonded. At this point Lexie could feel Lycan's resentment and the fact that he wasn't weak. The Cloven Rider had said that the eggs they had weren't hatching and so when they did find a bond mate, they had less time together. This resulted in the order's numbers depleting rapidly. There weren't enough of them left and the wild dragons were getting out of hand – trying to take over and put the 'tamer' dragons in their place. Some had ridden out to try and communicate with the wild dragons and get them on side. They tried to reason with them and persuade them to mate with bonded dragons to produce a newer and stronger race of bonded eggs. The messengers never returned but a warning did. The wild dragons would leave them alone for the time being but once the order was gone, they would be taking over and the wild dragons would rule all of the magical creatures. So the Cloven Rider was trying to initiate as many new riders as possible to make up their numbers and stop the wild dragons. Howick had not agreed with this, he and his dragon believed that the bonded dragons were too tame, they weren't what dragons were meant to be so they planned to destroy the order or at least help it fall. The first thing which Howick had done was to ensure that the Cloven Rider could not interfere, Howick had murdered him whilst he slept and listened as his dragon screamed in agony. Claiming the title of Cloven Rider for himself, Howick had sent word to the wild dragons who had attacked the order and demolished most of it, killing off almost all of the other bonded dragons. The only ones who had survived had either joined Howick and the wild dragons or fled to spread the world to foreign riders as to what was going on. Howick had been looking for reasons to get rid of the initiates ever since. Only partially initiated, the wild dragons would not attack them – they were not 'tame' and were only young – when he learned that Lexie had told someone about the order and her dragon, he lured her back tot he island where he could kill her. The only reason she hadn't been killed yet was because they needed to know who she had told so that they could kill him too. That and the fact that Howick wasn't as powerful as he like to think, were the only things keeping her alive.

The door to her prison was opened a fraction and Howick stepped in. Recently he had taken to interviewing her personally.

"Good morning, Miss Davenport."

"Is it morning?" She asked, unable to stop herself.

"Oh, yes. It has now been 24 days since I put you in here. I'm growing impatient, Miss Davenport, Whom did you tell our little secret to?" She raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

"Really, Miss Davenport, the longer you leave it the more unhappy I am going to become. Which means you will get less food and water and also I will be more inclined to kill you."

"You'll kill me no matter what I tell you" she spat at his face.

"Well, yes. We couldn't have you going around and spoiling our nice little set up could we?"

"I'll never tell you!" Howick sighed and turned away, whirling back around and backhanding her across the face. She hit the floor with a solid thud and didn't try to get back up.

"Until tomorrow, my dear." Someone get her some more water!" With no more words he left the room.

Lexie laid on the floor for a long time, not thinking about anything, just counting her breathing; in and out. She didn't move when they brought her more water - knowing it contained drugs she left it - not even having the energy to knock over the cup. When it became apparent that she would not be touching the cup, two guards came in and forced it down her. One of them held her up whilst the other poured the potion down er throat. Neither were too kind with her and when they were done they threw her back onto the cold floor and shut the door behind themselves. She slipped in and out of consciousness, seeing things which weren't there and dreaming about reality. She did not know how long it was until the door opened again, only that it must be time for another interrogation from Howick. She thought that if he hit her that hard again he might kill her by accident never mind on purpose. At first she thought that her eyes were playing tricks on her but as the remnants of the drugs wore off and the voice spoke, she knew she saw the truth.

"Alexia!" It was her father's voice but he couldn't be here.

"My baby girl, I knew I could find you!" Lexie lifted her head and wobbled slightly,

"Daddy?" She murmured through the haze,

"Here, drink this." He pushed something into her hands and she found it slightly warm, drinking it hesitantly, she thought it couldn't make her feel any worse. Her head cleared almost instantly and she looked straight at her father. She smiled and stood up, getting her bearings. Her father's face was full of worry, appraising her.

"Lexie, you don't look well."

"I know but we can't hang around here, come on."

"No, Lexie. I came to get you because you're my baby but also because Charlie needs you." Lexie's face creased with worries of her own and her father smiled slightly, "He went to look for you too only he didn't know where he was going. So he has set out on his own to try and find you, there has been no word form him for over a week."

"He remembered me?"

"Yes, I am quite ashamed to say that it was him who made me remember you. That was powerful magic you used."

"I didn't do anything! I just wiped Charlie's memory of Lycan but then Lycan imbued the spell with his own magic which made everyone forget me and him and and … everything!" Lexie cried before getting a hold of herself. Now was really not the time to start crying.

"He thinks very highly of you."

"I know Daddy, I know." Lexie began to move forwards but stopped when her father didn't follow her.

"Come on, we have to leave before they find us!" Her father still did not move, he smiled at her sadly and shook his head.

"Lycan cannot carry three people, once you find Mr Weasley you two must go home. I will find my own way back."

"I can't leave you here!"

"You can and you must!" Her father said sternly, he would not shout for fear of Howick finding them.

"No! I won't leave you!"

"You must go and find him, no one else can. He needs you." Her father gestured towards the doorway, "I'll be fine."

Lexie made for the door and turned at the last minute, "I'll come back for you." She said before dashing out of the door an up the stairs. She ran straight behind the first two guards without them realising but ran straight into the next four. She kept going and was turning down the next corridor and climbing the stairs to the floor above before they raised the alarm.

"THE PRISONER IS ESCAPING!" The cry came from below her and she took her chances with running up to the top floor where she would be able to free Lycan and fly without any obstacles. She could hear the heavy footfalls of maybe a dozen guards behind her as she took one last jump and threw herself out into the blinding sunlight. It had been so long since she had seen the sun that her eyes could not focus properly. She stumble forwards anyway in the direction that Lycan should be, before she got any further than a few steps, she ran into a wall of flesh. Gasping, she moved back a step, she prayed to every unnamed god that it was not Howick that she had just run into. She looked up hesitantly and smiled to see Lycan crouched low in the mosaic tiles, waiting for her to climb onto his back.

_Little one._ Lycan greeted her with a flick of his forked tongue, he didn't ask about her father, for which Lexie was very thankful. She didn't think that she could leave if she gave it any more thought. She needed to be away from the island and find Charlie. Then – and only then – would she think about her father.

"Get me away from here." She whispered, holding on tightly to Lycan as his powerful legs pushed them off the ground and her soared up into the sky. With one flap of his magnificent wings, he had then gliding away from the island and into the future, and their new task: Charlie.

**Where are you Charlie?**

She thought to herself as they beat the familiar path back to England. She couldn't just turn up at Hogwarts or the Burrow and demand to know where Charlie was. When 1) they probably wouldn't know and 2) none of them had a clue who she was. And then it clicked, she had shown him the pictures of her 'holiday' to the island last summer but he would never be able to find the island using them. No, she had also told him how they had got there, complaining good-naturedly about the long plane journeys and the changeover in Romania.

If Charlie had managed to break through the memory block that Lycan had constructed, he might well have remembered this trivial piece of information too. He just might have!

_He also might not have, little one._ Lycan thought to her.

**I have to try, I just have to. **She replied.

_And so we just drift across the entirety of Europe in the hopes if finding him?_

**No, of course not, if he's not in Romania he could be anywhere. If he's not there, we fly back to England and demand answers, someone has to know where he is, he can't have just disappeared off the face of the Earth!**

_Why not? You did._


	16. Silence Above All Else

**A/N: **OK, I'm getting really confused as to what chapter we're on so I think this is chapter 16 but it might be chapter 14 ... if you have any clue, I would like to know.

Enjoy!

**Chapter fourteen – Silence Above All Else**

It took a total of two days to find Charlie, they had almost given up on him being in Romania and were wheeling around to head towards England, when they caught sight of smoke rising from the middle of the Hoia-Baciu forest in western Romania.

"Charlie." Lexie whispered, "It has to be, no one else would camp out in the 'haunted forest'."

_Don't get too excited little one, it might just be a thrill seeker daring to spend a night with the ghosts._

Lexie nodded but she could feel the hope beginning to build inside her and leak through her bond with Lycan, he couldn't help hoping to find Charlie because it would make her happy. Lycan liked it when Lexie was happy, it made him feel as though he had done his job right.

**You have done your job right.**

Lycan flew lower and lower, eventually folding his wings to his side and landing on the edges of the forest.

_We will have to walk from here little one, I cannot fly with the trees so close together._

Lexie dismounted without a word and set off into the forest, casting a quick four-point-spell to tell her where the centre was. Lycan followed behind her, not quite as regal whilst walking, craning his neck this way and that to try and catch a glimpse of the red-headed boy they were looking for.

They were heading towards the centre the forest, towards a perfectly circular plateau devoid of trees, where the ghosts were said to live. Bitter apparitions of muggles who had been slaughtered by the vampires of the nearby town of Transylvania. They hated humans and got rid of all those who stood in their path. Lexie began to wonder if she had imagined the smoke – that her over active imagination had given her what she wanted to see so that it might get some respite from her hunting – but a cry rose from the middle of the plateau and Lexie began to sprint towards it.

"Charlie!" Lexie shouted, drawing her wand to blast the trees out of her way. She opened a gaping hole in the trees and stumbled out onto the open plain and saw a sight she never thought she would be happy to see. Charlie was surrounded by ice white shapes which vaguely resembled humans, humans with disfigured bodies. The had been mauled and morphed until they resembled something almost animal and definitely fear inducing.

**Vampires? **She thought to Lycan, **vampires don't do this, they drain their blood but they would never do anything like this!**

_Not the vampire you know, these were the first vampires, the Nihmenvale, created by a sorceress in the dark ages, she sought out eternal life for her family and cursed them so much that they became monsters, they drank their blood and mauled their bodies before leaving them to rot in this very forest. _Lycan informed her, spraying a bout of fire into their midst, the back row vaporised but it wasn't enough, for every one that vanished another two appeared and it was only a matter of time before the others re-formed, angry and ready to claim them. They were circling him and trying to back him into a corner, trying to get to him. To do god-knows-what to him.

"NOOOO" Lexie screamed, jumping forwards and bowling straight through the first four rows of ghosts and feeling as though she had just been doused in ice. She joined Charlie, standing back-to-back to him and pointing her wand at the ghosts, they didn't move or flinch. The wand didn't phase them at all.

"IMPEDIMENTA!" Lexie shouted, trying in vain to slow down the onslaught of ghosts and terrors.

"I don't think wands work on them!" Charlie shouted above the horrible clamour of groans and angry cries the ghosts were making.

"I figured that much out for myself!" Lexie shouted back, "Cover me! There's only one thing that'll work on these monsters, you're just lucky I have two!"

Lexie dived back through the ghosts and made her way to Lycan who was fighting off as many as both her and Charlie were. She swung up onto the saddle and began rooting through the huge saddlebags as she searched for the weapons her father had made for her. She pulled them out with a grin an admired them. Long swords, the same ice white as the ghosts, so much harsher than the diamond white of Lycan's scales.

"Charlie! Catch." She shouted, throwing one of the swords. Charlie didn't ask questions, he caught the sword in his left hand and he swapped it in one swift move to his right hand. He dragged it back through the air and sliced the five ghosts - in front of him – in half. They looked shocked and their gurgles became panicked as they began to fizzle away. Anywhere the swords had cut them were eaten away and it was spreading up their bodies until they were gone. Charlie looked down at the weapon in his hands and grinned in appreciation. He could tell that the ghosts weren't coming back.

"Nice one Lexie" he shouted, pouncing on the next group of terrors who were advancing on him.

In the meantime, Lexie was fighting from Lycan's back leg, Lycan himself was rearing up, roaring and swiping his claws through the closest ghosts. Lexie kicked straight through one as she stabbed her own sword through a second and then a third ghost. She brought her sword back though the two fading ghosts and used the hilt of it the smash the misty skull of the first ghost. She looked around and saw to her relief that no more ghosts were coming towards them, they were either staying away or moving on. Charlie slashed another three straight through the middle and she jumped from Lycan's back leg to the ground, running another two ghosts through and rolling upright to meet five more. She plunged the sword straight through one and didn't bother to pull it back out as she wheeled around and her arm snapped back to chop the four final heads off. Lycan roared for a final time and bathed the entire plateau in white hot flames, when the fire died and Lexie's eyes adjusted to the newly dark enclosure, she saw the outline of Charlie sat on the floor in the middle of the plateau, looking down at the sword in his hands. She began to approach him slowly, unsure of how to proceed.

"What are these?" Charlie asked looking up at her as though nothing had happened, as though they were still at Hogwarts, sitting under the tree in front of the lake, discussing what to do with their weekend.

"Charlie," she began.

"I mean, how do they work?"

"Charlie -"

"And where can I get one?"

"CHARLIE!" He finally looked up at her and put the sword down. "I'm sorry."

"I know." He replied, turning away from her and picking up a back pack which had been thrown down in all of the confusion with the ghosts.

"Charlie, talk to me."

"I am talking to you, Lex, I just don't want to talk about anything before ten minutes ago." Lexie opened her mouth to speak but Charlie ignored her, pacing up and down, and continued. "I just don't see the point, it'll hurt us both and take a lot of explaining and we don't need to talk about it. I don't want to know what happened to you and why you left me. It'll upset me and I don't have the energy left to be upset about something I can't change. And you don't want to know how I broke your spell, you don't need me to tell you, you already know." He looked over at Lexie sharply and gave her a little smile.

"No, I don't" she whispered, feeling very confused and almost angry at Charlie, it wasn't like him to act like this.

"Yes, you do, all you have to do is think about it." Charlie took a step towards Lexie and held out a hand to her, she took it hesitantly and he pulled her towards him. She stood, face to face, with Charlie and looked straight at him, nodding. Yes, she did know what it was but she wasn't ready to admit it to herself, not yet.

"So can we go back to the start, and try again?" He asked gently, Lexie nodded and he pushed her away slightly, grinning. He turned around and when her turned back, he had a straight face on.

"Hi, my name's Charlie Weasley, I'm eighteen years old and I have five brothers and a sister. We're a big family but I know you'll love it" Charlie said holding out his hand for her to shake.

"Charlie, I've known you for seven years," Lexie giggled but at Charlie's frown she smoothed out her face.

"Hello Charlie, I'm Alexia Davenport but you can call me Lexie. I'm seventeen years old and I have one sister, my dad-" Lexie gasped.

"My dad!"

"What about him?"

"He left Hogwarts, followed you, to try and find me, that's how I got out."

"Well where is he?"

"He's still on the island! He made me leave him so that I could find you, but that was days ago!" Lexie picked up the two swords and sprinted over to Lycan, Charlie not a step behind her. She pulled herself into the saddle and stowed the swords away before helping Charlie up behind her. Without a word from Lexie, Lycan took to the sky and began retracing the way back to Isle Draig.

It took Lycan a whole day to fly back to Isle Draig – because of the extra weight on his back – and every extra minute it took them made Lexie even more nervous. Even more afraid of what they would find when they got there. Something was telling Lexie that nothing good would be found when they arrived.

They finally touched down on the marble mosaic and dismounted Lycan. There was silence on the island, no sound of the sea, no sound of sleeping dragons and no sound of a struggle. Lexie led the way down the small stone staircase – where she had first found her friend the stone man – and Charlie grabbed her hand on the way down, comforting her and making sure she didn't fall. There was no one around. No guards, no servants, not even a sign of Howick. And it was silent, so silent that the squeak of mouse sounded like the roar of alion and the rustling of the wind was like monsters running after them. As they neared the central chamber, under the middle of the mosaic, Lexie began to slow down. Her heart was beating in her head and she couldn't force herself to move any faster, dreading what they would find when they finally reached the doorway.

**It shouldn't be this quiet. No where should ever be this quiet **she thought, no one replied. Without realising it, she had completely closed down the connection between Lycan and herself. She could hear Lycan smashing against the mosaic and roaring. Trying to get to her.

**At least it isn't silent. **She thought.

They rounded the last corner and she didn't have to go any further to see what had happened. There had been a fight. A big fight.

The bodies of the guards – along with many members of the order – were scattered across the floor. There was a lot of blood, sprayed all around the chamber, coating walls and ceilings and other, smaller objects. Charlie was walking forwards, picking up one of the smaller objects, and crying out in horror.

A smallish dragon egg was in his hands, smashed at one end with a tiny hatchling halfway out of it. It was dying. It's feeble cries were desperate and pained, it brought tears to Lexie's eyes. There was nothing that Charlie or Lexie could do for it. Charlie held it and a tear spilled on to it from his eyes, he held it whilst it die. Even after it had died, he did not let it go.

There were other dragons too, of varying ages. Young, all of them small enough to climb down the stairs and rush to the aid of whoever needed them. They were all dead, laid around the room with the bodies of the order.

Lexie cried out in horror at the amount of young that had been lost, there were precious few dragons left in the world and here was the majority of the new hatchlings, killed in their attempt to help someone who wanted to set them free.

There were two bodies in the centre of the chamber, Howick was one of them but she didn't want to look at the other.

"Is it?" She asked Charlie who was staring over at the place where they laid, he nodded, pulling her against him and kissing the top of her head.

"I'm so sorry." He whispered in her ear and she nodded, stroking down the cheek of the baby dragon still cradled in Charlie's other arm. She pulled away from Charlie and took a few steps towards her father. Unable to remain away from her father, she knelt next to him and straightened out his hair.

Charlie left her there, knelt next to her father's body and returned to the surface to tell Lycan everything Lexie was keeping from him.

Lexie vaguely heard the anguished roar of her dragon and she mourned the passing of her father.


End file.
